The Power of Nature
by Bean-Dumbledore
Summary: Laura and Anna live in a normal city and on a normal street, but what they don't know is that their lives are going to turn upside down when they meet two boys named Leo and Sammy. The four kids embark on an adventure to flee evil and save their kind.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"What are you doing?", Anna asked, as she stepped outside and closed the house door behind her. Laura was laying in the grass of the backyard, and looking up at the puffy clouds in the sky. Colorful leaves danced around her head and raced in the wind.

"I don't know.", Laura replied. "I just feel like being outside today and besides it's a beautiful day.

Laura was right about that, Anna thought. It was a crisp autumn afternoon and the sun was shining high in the sky. It's warm rays of beaming sunlight warmed Anna up, as she sat down and laid herself down beside her sister.

"I just love this time of year.", sighed Laura. "It makes me happier and calmer. I don't know why. It just does! Do you ever have that kind of feeling?"

"Sort of. I don't really have that kind of feeling now, but I do sort of have it during the spring sometimes.", replied Anna.

"Don't you ever think that that feeling means something? I mean, something important?", Laura asked hopefully.

"I don't know. I can't really say I have.", Anna says. "Come on. Let's go back inside. Mom wants us to do our chores before dinner."

"Okay.", Laura sighed, as she got up and followed her sister inside.

Laura and Anna live in a small house that sits at the end of Pine Lane near the Evergreen woods. It is a rather peaceful place to settle down and live. The street has a nice neighborhood and isn't at all that busy. The girls' family hate the busy city, so Pine Lane is perfect.

The girls' parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frable, are kind and the best possible parents a kid could ever ask for. They have all the traits parents should have. They are kind, gentle, protective of their beloved children, helpful, and above all, loving. They would do anything to protect and help Laura and Anna.

Like their parents, Laura and Anna are awesome. Laura has long, curly, pretty, red hair and warm, bright, amber eyes. She is curious, optimistic, graceful and enjoys an adventure. She is 13 years old and is younger than her sister. Anna is quite different than Laura. Anna has long, straight, dark, chocolate, brown hair and dazzling, light, green eyes. She is energetic, beautiful, sweet, and loves to run. She is 15 years old and is the oldest of the two sisters.

** . . . . . **


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1

"What are you doing?", Anna asked, as she stepped outside and closed the house door behind her. Laura was laying in the grass of the backyard, and looking up at the puffy clouds in the sky. Colorful leaves danced around her head and raced in the wind.

"I don't know.", Laura replied. "I just feel like being outside today and besides it's a beautiful day."

Laura was right about that, Anna thought. It was a crisp autumn afternoon and the sun was shining high in the sky. It's warm rays of beaming sunlight warmed Anna up, as she sat down and laid herself down beside her sister.

"I just love this time of year.", sighed Laura. "It makes me happier and calmer. I don't know why. It just does! Do you ever have that kind of feeling?"

"Sort of. I don't really have that kind of feeling now, but I do sort of have it during the spring sometimes.", replied Anna.

"Don't you ever think that that feeling means something? I mean, something important?", Laura asked hopefully.

"I don't know. I can't really say I have.", Anna says. "Come on. Let's go back inside. Mom wants us to do our chores before dinner."

"Okay.", Laura sighed, as she got up and followed her sister inside.

Laura and Anna live in a small house that sits at the end of Pine Lane near the Evergreen woods. It is a rather peaceful place to settle down and live. The street has a nice neighborhood and isn't at all that busy. The girls' family hate the busy city, so Pine Lane is perfect.

The girls' parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frable, are kind and the best possible parents a kid could ever ask for. They have all the traits parents should have. They are kind, gentle, protective of their beloved children, helpful, and above all, loving. They would do anything to protect and help Laura and Anna.

Like their parents, Laura and Anna are awesome. Laura has long, curly, pretty, red hair and warm, bright, amber eyes. She is curious, optimistic, graceful and enjoys an adventure. She is 13 years old and is younger than her sister. Anna is quite different than Laura. Anna has long, straight, dark, chocolate, brown hair and dazzling, light, green eyes. She is energetic, beautiful, sweet, and loves to run. She is 15 years old and is the oldest of the two sisters.

**. . . . . **

Chapter 2

"Did we lose it!?", Leo asked hopefully, as he ran for his life through the woods, while dodging trees and jumping over tree roots.

"No! Not yet!", Sammy yelled back, as he too, ran faster than he'd ever ran before.

"What is that thing?", Leo cried.

"I think it's a Flaming Shadow! They're Deathvol's followers and he must of sent one to kidnap us and bring us to his castle!

"Castle? That thing is not a castle! It's more like a dump that a dragon used for a bathroom!", Leo yelled back in disgust. He glanced up. The monster was hideous. It looked half phoenix and half dog; a dog Leo would hate to have as a pet. It's teeth looked like they were too big for it's mouth and were yellowed and stained with blood from it's last victim. It had dark red wings of a phoenix protruding from it's back and it's body was covered with brown fur. Leo couldn't believe that the regular mortals couldn't see it.

"Leo! Stop daydreaming back there! A man eating beast is chasing us! Get a move on! Oh, and watch where you step. There's tree roots sticking out of the ground everywhere." Leo stopped looking up at the beast, tripped on a root, and smacked his face into a pine tree. Leo groaned and touched his hand to his head. Blood trickled down the side of his face. The Flame Shadow took the advantage and tucked it's feathery wings into it's body and went into a speedy dive towards Leo.

"I will get you Leo and this time you won't get away!", the mutt rasped. "I will take you to my master, and when he is finished with you, you will become my chew toy!"

"Well, that's very appealing and I would love to become your chew toy, but I'm kind of busy running away from you and that creepy dude, Deathvol.", Leo muttered as he staggered up from the ground, and rubbed his aching head.

"YOU WILL DIE LEO!", the monster said.

"Leo, look out! Flaming Shadows can breath fire!", Sammy yelled, as he ran to his brother to help. Balls of flame rained down from above, catching the trees on fire. "Leo! Get behind me!", Sammy yelled even louder. Sammy concentrated on his powers and thought of flowing rivers, calm oceans, trickling streams, and splashing ponds. He channeled his powers into those thoughts and water sprang from his palm, gallons and gallons of water. He aimed the water at the raining flames and the fire extinguished into steaming mist. The monster was on top of them now, and the only thing stopping it was the sputtering flow of water. Sammy couldn't keep this up for long. Summoning this much water was draining his strength. Soon, the mutt would strike down, gather them in it's claws, and soar off towards Deathvol, who would only want to kill them. "Leo! Do you see that house on the edge of the woods? Go to it, knock on the door, and get inside no matter who comes to the door! You hear me!"

"What about you?", Leo asked.

"I'll be fine! Just go!", Sammy yelled.

"Why would I do that! I never go in the woods. That's what toilets are for. Duh!", Leo said.

"Uhhhhhhhh! Leo! You have a sick mind! That's gross man, really gross! You know what I meant! Leave!", Sammy said. Leo laughed.

"I'm not leaving without you! I need you!", Leo cried in a sarcastic voice. "What if there's strangers in that house."

"Fine! Do you have a better plan?!", Sammy cried in frustration. Why was Leo acting so calm and joking about this. Didn't he know they were in a life or death situation?

"Just watch the Leo Master!", Leo said dramatically. He walked past Sammy. "Could you turn that little hose coming out of your hand off?! It would be much appreciated." Sammy forced the water to come to a stop. "Thanks." He walked straight up to the Flaming Shadow and yelled "FREEZE RAY!" A blast of chilly ice shot out of the palm of his hand and froze the monster in a suspended block of ice. "And that's how it's done!", Leo cried with a bow.

"Show off.", Sammy said. "Let's go to that house." They trudged through the woods and to the house. It was quite small, but it looked pretty cozy. Then they heard an ear piercing BARK! behind them. Both Sammy and Leo whirled around. The mutt had melted most of the ice away and it's paw was the only thing still encased in ice.

"How did it get out of the ice so quickly!?", Leo asked in amazement. "That was one of my best ice block encasings!"

"It doesn't matter how it got out! Just RUN!" Sammy and Leo ran to the house as fast as they could. Then they heard another BARK! This time it sounded only about a couple feet away. The monster must have broke free of that last piece of ice. They got to the doorsteps of the house. Leo rang the doorbell like a madman.

"OPEN UP! OPEN UP!", he screeched. The door opened. A girl about 13 years old had answered.

"What do you-", she began to say, but she couldn't finish, because the boys rushed forward, knocked her over, and slammed the door shut behind them.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 1

"What are you doing?", Anna asked, as she stepped outside and closed the house door behind her. Laura was laying in the grass of the backyard, and looking up at the puffy clouds in the sky. Colorful leaves danced around her head and raced in the wind.

"I don't know.", Laura replied. "I just feel like being outside today and besides it's a beautiful day."

Laura was right about that, Anna thought. It was a crisp autumn afternoon and the sun was shining high in the sky. It's warm rays of beaming sunlight warmed Anna up, as she sat down and laid herself down beside her sister.

"I just love this time of year.", sighed Laura. "It makes me happier and calmer. I don't know why. It just does! Do you ever have that kind of feeling?"

"Sort of. I don't really have that kind of feeling now, but I do sort of have it during the spring sometimes.", replied Anna.

"Don't you ever think that that feeling means something? I mean, something important?", Laura asked hopefully.

"I don't know. I can't really say I have.", Anna says. "Come on. Let's go back inside. Mom wants us to do our chores before dinner."

"Okay.", Laura sighed, as she got up and followed her sister inside.

Laura and Anna live in a small house that sits at the end of Pine Lane near the Evergreen woods. It is a rather peaceful place to settle down and live. The street has a nice neighborhood and isn't at all that busy. The girls' family hate the busy city, so Pine Lane is perfect.

The girls' parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frable, are kind and the best possible parents a kid could ever ask for. They have all the traits parents should have. They are kind, gentle, protective of their beloved children, helpful, and above all, loving. They would do anything to protect and help Laura and Anna.

Like their parents, Laura and Anna are awesome. Laura has long, curly, pretty, red hair and warm, bright, amber eyes. She is curious, optimistic, graceful and enjoys an adventure. She is 13 years old and is younger than her sister. Anna is quite different than Laura. Anna has long, straight, dark, chocolate, brown hair and dazzling, light, green eyes. She is energetic, beautiful, sweet, and loves to run. She is 15 years old and is the oldest of the two sisters.

**. . . . . **

Chapter 2

"Did we lose it!?", Leo asked hopefully, as he ran for his life through the woods, while dodging trees and jumping over tree roots.

"No! Not yet!", Sammy yelled back, as he too, ran faster than he'd ever ran before.

"What is that thing?", Leo cried.

"I think it's a Flaming Shadow! They're Deathvol's followers and he must of sent one to kidnap us and bring us to his castle!

"Castle? That thing is not a castle! It's more like a dump that a dragon used for a bathroom!", Leo yelled back in disgust. He glanced up. The monster was hideous. It looked half phoenix and half dog; a dog Leo would hate to have as a pet. It's teeth looked like they were too big for it's mouth and were yellowed and stained with blood from it's last victim. It had dark red wings of a phoenix protruding from it's back and it's body was covered with brown fur. Leo couldn't believe that the regular mortals couldn't see it.

"Leo! Stop daydreaming back there! A man eating beast is chasing us! Get a move on! Oh, and watch where you step. There's tree roots sticking out of the ground everywhere." Leo stopped looking up at the beast, tripped on a root, and smacked his face into a pine tree. Leo groaned and touched his hand to his head. Blood trickled down the side of his face. The Flame Shadow took the advantage and tucked it's feathery wings into it's body and went into a speedy dive towards Leo.

"I will get you Leo and this time you won't get away!", the mutt rasped. "I will take you to my master, and when he is finished with you, you will become my chew toy!"

"Well, that's very appealing and I would love to become your chew toy, but I'm kind of busy running away from you and that creepy dude, Deathvol.", Leo muttered as he staggered up from the ground, and rubbed his aching head.

"YOU WILL DIE LEO!", the monster said.

"Leo, look out! Flaming Shadows can breath fire!", Sammy yelled, as he ran to his brother to help. Balls of flame rained down from above, catching the trees on fire. "Leo! Get behind me!", Sammy yelled even louder. Sammy concentrated on his powers and thought of flowing rivers, calm oceans, trickling streams, and splashing ponds. He channeled his powers into those thoughts and water sprang from his palm, gallons and gallons of water. He aimed the water at the raining flames and the fire extinguished into steaming mist. The monster was on top of them now, and the only thing stopping it was the sputtering flow of water. Sammy couldn't keep this up for long. Summoning this much water was draining his strength. Soon, the mutt would strike down, gather them in it's claws, and soar off towards Deathvol, who would only want to kill them. "Leo! Do you see that house on the edge of the woods? Go to it, knock on the door, and get inside no matter who comes to the door! You hear me!"

"What about you?", Leo asked.

"I'll be fine! Just go!", Sammy yelled.

"Why would I do that! I never go in the woods. That's what toilets are for. Duh!", Leo said.

"Uhhhhhhhh! Leo! You have a sick mind! That's gross man, really gross! You know what I meant! Leave!", Sammy said. Leo laughed.

"I'm not leaving without you! I need you!", Leo cried in a sarcastic voice. "What if there's strangers in that house."

"Fine! Do you have a better plan?!", Sammy cried in frustration. Why was Leo acting so calm and joking about this. Didn't he know they were in a life or death situation?

"Just watch the Leo Master!", Leo said dramatically. He walked past Sammy. "Could you turn that little hose coming out of your hand off?! It would be much appreciated." Sammy forced the water to come to a stop. "Thanks." He walked straight up to the Flaming Shadow and yelled "FREEZE RAY!" A blast of chilly ice shot out of the palm of his hand and froze the monster in a suspended block of ice. "And that's how it's done!", Leo cried with a bow.

"Show off.", Sammy said. "Let's go to that house." They trudged through the woods and to the house. It was quite small, but it looked pretty cozy. Then they heard an ear piercing BARK! behind them. Both Sammy and Leo whirled around. The mutt had melted most of the ice away and it's paw was the only thing still encased in ice.

"How did it get out of the ice so quickly!?", Leo asked in amazement. "That was one of my best ice block encasings!"

"It doesn't matter how it got out! Just RUN!" Sammy and Leo ran to the house as fast as they could. Then they heard another BARK! This time it sounded only about a couple feet away. The monster must have broke free of that last piece of ice. They got to the doorsteps of the house. Leo rang the doorbell like a madman.

"OPEN UP! OPEN UP!", he screeched. The door opened. A girl about 13 years old had answered.

"What do you-", she began to say, but she couldn't finish, because the boys rushed forward, knocked her over, and slammed the door shut behind them.

Chapter 3

"What do you think you're doing?!", the 13 year old girl screamed at the boys as she got up.

"Something!", Leo said. "And it's none of your beeswax." They were standing in a room that was probably the living room. The walls were painted a pearly white and the carpet was shaggy and the color of sand. A big window with silky, creme colored curtains covered up most of the space on the wall, in front of the room. A light, blue sofa sat in front of the window, and a bookshelf full of movies and books sat on the left side of the sofa. On the opposite wall of the window, laid a plush chair that was the same shade of blue as the sofa. Between the chair and the sofa, was a white coffee table, piled high with more books. Another white table, sat next to the bookshelf with a T.V rested comfortably on top.

"MOM! DAD! ANNA! COME QUICK! THERE'S SOME RUDE STRANGERS IN OUR HOUSE!", the girl yelled. A man and a woman that must have been the girl's parents, came running in from the kitchen. Then two seconds later, a girl about Sammy's age bounded down from upstairs. She must be Anna.

"What's going on?", Anna asked. "And why is his head bleeding?!" Anna pointed at Leo.

"I don't know. The doorbell rang like a thousand times, so I went and answered the door, and these two boys were at the door, but before I could ask them what they wanted, they scrambled in, knocking me down in the process, and slammed the door shut.", the girl replied angrily.

"Do you think we should call the police on them?", the mom said.

"Yes!", the girl said excitedly with a mischievous grin.

"No!", Leo, Sammy, and Anna said together at the same time. Leo and Sammy looked at Anna in disbelief.

"I think we should at least give them a chance to state their story before we decide to hand them over to the police.", explained Anna.

"No, let's call the police and they can ask them what their story is in court. They are charged of technically breaking into our house and knocking over a sweet, little, innocent child!", said the girl.

"What's your name?", Leo asked the girl through gritted teeth. "Because I'm about to ship you off to South Africa!"

"Leo, calm down!", Sammy whispered. "You're not making this any better."

"Well, that's actually very nice of you because I've always had a dream to go to South Africa.", the girl said to Leo with sarcasm and a fake smile. "And my name is Laura by the way."

Leo balled his fists up and started forward, but Sammy held him back. "Ohhhhhhhh! When I get my hands on you! . . . . . . . "

"You'll do what?!", Laura spit back, while placing her hands on her hips.

"I'll . . . I'll . . . I'll freeze you in your tracks! Literally.", he answered. Laura didn't know what to say to that. She was puzzled at what he said and what he meant when he said he could literally freeze her in her tracks. She fell silent. Laura then glanced over at her parents. The pair of them seemed to be having a pretty aggressive discussion. They were whispering extremely fast while occasionally taking quick looks at the two boys. Laura listened intently.

"Honey, I know you don't want it to be true, but it's true. It's time . . .", she heard her dad whisper to her mom.

"What did that mean?", Laura thought. "What is it time for? Did this have anything to do with her? Why did her parents look so scared and nervous? Did this have anything to do with the boys? What was going on?" Laura had millions of questions and it was all mind boggling.

Her parents then suddenly looked up and immediately became quiet, when they noticed that everyone in the room was staring at them. Laura's mom cleared her throat nervously.

"How about you girls sit down with these boys for a second, and like Anna said, let them tell you their story. I'll get the boy a bandage for his head.", the girls' mom said as she and her husband rushed out of the room.

Laura and Anna plopped down on the living room couch by the window and Sammy and Leo reluctantly followed, and sat on the opposite sofa. There was a pause of awkward silence.

"Soooooo, what's your story?", Anna asked patiently.

"Oh, yeah, right, our story.", Sammy mumbled. "Ummmm . . . . . . . Well, to start with, we are photographers and we were in Evergreen woods taking pictures of the sky, the trees, the birds and stuff like that. Leo and I were just taking a picture of a woodpecker, when we saw a black bear and it's cubs. The mama black bear must have been sick or something, because when it saw us, it did not walk away like most bears do. Instead, it growled at us and then charged. Obviously we ran for our lives and . . . . .

"Running from a crazy bear is a really bad idea. You're suppose to play dead.", Anna cut in.

"Ok then miss know it all! Can you let my brother talk?", Leo said.

"It's fine Leo. ", Sammy said. "Anyways, we ran for our lives, and then we quickly climbed up some trees and then. . . . . . . . . ."

"Don't you know that black bears can climb trees?!", Anna cut in again.

"Yes, I know, but we were under pressure!", Sammy said defensively. "Now let me continue. We quickly climbed up some trees and the bear followed us up mere seconds later. Then . . . . ."

"An ugly monster flew from the sky and attacked us!", Leo interrupted. Sammy glared at Leo.

"Ha! Ha! Ha! Very funny Leo. He's just joking. Leo is always joking around.", Sammy said nervously with a half hearted laugh. "Ahh, where was I?"

"The bear was climbing up the tree, and then an ugly monster attacked you.", Laura offered.

"No! No! No! A monster never attacked us!", Sammy said quickly while shaking his head.

"Uhh, Sammy?", Leo asked slowly while continually poking Sammy in the arm.

"Don't interrupt.", Sammy said as he swatted Leo's hand away. "As I was saying . . . . ."

"Sammy!" Leo yelled, this time poking Sammy even harder.

"What is your problem!?", Sammy asked.

Leo leaned forward. "Look at what they're wearing around their necks.", he whispered to Sammy. Sammy looked up at the girls. They were both wearing matching necklaces, strung with a glass pendant. Both of the pendants looked oddly familiar. They had a single flower with leaf shaped petals painted on them. The only difference between the two pendants was the color of the flowers. Anna's flower was pink and Laura's flower was orange. Then he realized why they looked so familiar. He had one that looked exactly like theirs, except the flower on his pendant was green. Leo had one too, except the flower on his was blue. His eyes widened.

"Do you know what this means?", Leo whispered.

"Yes. It means that we finally found fall and spring!", Sammy whispered excitedly.

"Helloooo! We're still here! Are you done with your gossiping girls whispering?", Laura said impatiently. "Finish the story already!"

"We're not girls.", Leo grumbled. "And our story was a lie."

"That's another reason why we should give you up to the cops.", Laura said.

"I really don't want these girls to be the ones.", Leo whispered to Sammy. "I was hoping for maybe some cute girls." Sammy rolled his eyes.

"Why did you lie to us?, Anna asked. "I'm going to have to agree with my sister about you guys being turned into the police. Lying to us is not really helping your reputation right now. Can you tell us the real story?"

"Yes, actually I was just about to do that very thing, but no matter how crazy this story is, you have to promise that you will believe us.", Sammy said sternly.

"I will.", replied Anna.

"Fine.", replied Laura with a sigh. "As long as it's a good story."

"Oh, it's very good. Maybe even mind blowing. You'll see.", Leo said.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 1**

"What are you doing?", Anna asked, as she stepped outside and closed the house door behind her. Laura was laying in the grass of the backyard, and looking up at the puffy clouds in the sky. Colorful leaves danced around her head and raced in the wind.

"I don't know.", Laura replied. "I just feel like being outside today and besides it's a beautiful day."

Laura was right about that, Anna thought. It was a crisp autumn afternoon and the sun was shining high in the sky. It's warm rays of beaming sunlight warmed Anna up, as she sat down and laid herself down beside her sister.

"I just love this time of year.", sighed Laura. "It makes me happier and calmer. I don't know why. It just does! Do you ever have that kind of feeling?"

"Sort of. I don't really have that kind of feeling now, but I do sort of have it during the spring sometimes.", replied Anna.

"Don't you ever think that that feeling means something? I mean, something important?", Laura asked hopefully.

"I don't know. I can't really say I have.", Anna says. "Come on. Let's go back inside. Mom wants us to do our chores before dinner."

"Okay.", Laura sighed, as she got up and followed her sister inside.

Laura and Anna live in a small house that sits at the end of Pine Lane near the Evergreen woods. It is a rather peaceful place to settle down and live. The street has a nice neighborhood and isn't at all that busy. The girls' family hate the busy city, so Pine Lane is perfect.

The girls' parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frable, are kind and the best possible parents a kid could ever ask for. They have all the traits parents should have. They are kind, gentle, protective of their beloved children, helpful, and above all, loving. They would do anything to protect and help Laura and Anna.

Like their parents, Laura and Anna are awesome. Laura has long, curly, pretty, red hair and warm, bright, amber eyes. She is curious, optimistic, graceful and enjoys an adventure. She is 13 years old and is younger than her sister. Anna is quite different than Laura. Anna has long, straight, dark, chocolate, brown hair and dazzling, light, green eyes. She is energetic, beautiful, sweet, and loves to run. She is 15 years old and is the oldest of the two sisters.

**. . . . . **

**Chapter 2**

"Did we lose it!?", Leo asked hopefully, as he ran for his life through the woods, while dodging trees and jumping over tree roots. His pack bounced on his back, making it hard to run.

"No! Not yet!", Sammy yelled back, as he too, ran faster than he'd ever ran before.

"What is that thing?", Leo cried.

"I think it's a Flamingshadow! They're Deathvol's followers and he must of sent one to kidnap us and bring us to his castle!

"Castle? That thing is not a castle! It's more like a dump that a dragon used for a bathroom!", Leo yelled back in disgust. He glanced up. The monster was hideous. It looked half phoenix and half dog; a dog Leo would hate to have as a pet. It's teeth looked like they were too big for it's mouth and were yellowed and stained with blood from it's last victim. It had dark red wings of a phoenix protruding from it's back and it's body was covered with brown fur. Leo couldn't believe that the regular mortals couldn't see it.

"Leo! Stop daydreaming back there! A man eating beast is chasing us! Get a move on! Oh, and watch where you step. There's tree roots sticking out of the ground everywhere." Leo stopped looking up at the beast, tripped on a root, and smacked his face into a pine tree. Leo groaned and touched his hand to his head. Blood trickled down the side of his face. The Flamingshadow took the advantage and tucked it's feathery wings into it's body and went into a speedy dive towards Leo.

"I will get you Leo and this time you won't get away!", the mutt rasped. "I will take you to my master, and when he is finished with you, you will become my chew toy!"

"Well, that's very appealing and I would love to become your chew toy, but I'm kind of busy running away from you and that creepy dude, Deathvol.", Leo muttered as he staggered up from the ground, and rubbed his aching head.

"YOU WILL DIE LEO!", the monster said.

"Leo, look out! Flamingshadows can breath fire!", Sammy yelled, as he ran to his brother to help. Balls of flame rained down from above, catching the trees on fire. "Leo! Get behind me!", Sammy yelled even louder. Sammy concentrated on his powers and thought of flowing rivers, calm oceans, trickling streams, and splashing ponds. He channeled his powers into those thoughts and water sprang from his palm, gallons and gallons of water. He aimed the water at the raining flames and the fire extinguished into steaming mist. The monster was on top of them now, and the only thing stopping it was the sputtering flow of water. Sammy couldn't keep this up for long. Summoning this much water was draining his strength. Soon, the mutt would strike down, gather them in it's claws, and soar off towards Deathvol, who would only want to kill them. "Leo! Do you see that house on the edge of the woods? Go to it, knock on the door, and get inside no matter who comes to the door! You hear me!"

"What about you?", Leo asked.

"I'll be fine! Just go!", Sammy yelled.

"Why would I do that! I never go in the woods. That's what toilets are for. Duh!", Leo said.

"Uhhhhhhhh! Leo! You have a sick mind! That's gross man, really gross! You know what I meant! Leave!", Sammy said. Leo laughed.

"I'm not leaving without you! I need you!", Leo cried in a sarcastic voice. "What if there's strangers in that house."

"Fine! Do you have a better plan?!", Sammy cried in frustration. Why was Leo acting so calm and joking about this. Didn't he know they were in a life or death situation?

"Just watch the Leo Master!", Leo said dramatically. He walked past Sammy. "Could you turn that little hose coming out of your hand off?! It would be much appreciated." Sammy forced the water to come to a stop. "Thanks." He walked straight up to the Flamingshadow and yelled "FREEZE RAY!" A blast of chilly ice shot out of the palm of his hand and froze the monster in a suspended block of ice. "And that's how it's done!", Leo cried with a bow.

"Show off.", Sammy said. "Let's go to that house." They trudged through the woods and to the house. It was quite small, but it looked pretty cozy. Then they heard an ear piercing BARK! behind them. Both Sammy and Leo whirled around. The mutt had melted most of the ice away and it's paw was the only thing still encased in ice.

"How did it get out of the ice so quickly!?", Leo asked in amazement. "That was one of my best ice block encasings!"

"It doesn't matter how it got out! Just RUN!" Sammy and Leo ran to the house as fast as they could. Then they heard another BARK! This time it sounded only about a couple feet away. The monster must have broke free of that last piece of ice. They got to the doorsteps of the house. Leo rang the doorbell like a madman.

"OPEN UP! OPEN UP!", he screeched. The door opened. A girl about 13 years old had answered.

"What do you-", she began to say, but she couldn't finish, because the boys rushed forward, knocked her over, and slammed the door shut behind them.

**Chapter 3**

"What do you think you're doing?!", the 13 year old girl screamed at the boys as she got up.

"Something!", Leo said. "And it's none of your beeswax." They were standing in a room that was probably the living room. The walls were painted a pearly white and the carpet was shaggy and the color of sand. A big window with silky, creme colored curtains covered up most of the space on the wall, in front of the room. A light, blue sofa sat in front of the window, and a bookshelf full of movies and books sat on the left side of the sofa. On the opposite wall of the window, laid a plush chair that was the same shade of blue as the sofa. Between the chair and the sofa, was a white coffee table, piled high with more books. Another white table, sat next to the bookshelf with a T.V rested comfortably on top.

"MOM! DAD! ANNA! COME QUICK! THERE'S SOME RUDE STRANGERS IN OUR HOUSE!", the girl yelled. A man and a woman that must have been the girl's parents, came running in from the kitchen. Then two seconds later, a girl about Sammy's age bounded down from upstairs. She must be Anna.

"What's going on?", Anna asked. "And why is his head bleeding?!" Anna pointed at Leo.

"I don't know. The doorbell rang like a thousand times, so I went and answered the door, and these two boys were at the door, but before I could ask them what they wanted, they scrambled in, knocking me down in the process, and slammed the door shut.", the girl replied angrily.

"Do you think we should call the police on them?", the mom said.

"Yes!", the girl said excitedly with a mischievous grin.

"No!", Leo, Sammy, and Anna said together at the same time. Leo and Sammy looked at Anna in disbelief.

"I think we should at least give them a chance to state their story before we decide to hand them over to the police.", explained Anna.

"No, let's call the police and they can ask them what their story is in court. They are charged of technically breaking into our house and knocking over a sweet, little, innocent child!", said the girl.

"What's your name?", Leo asked the girl through gritted teeth. "Because I'm about to ship you off to South Africa!"

"Leo, calm down!", Sammy whispered. "You're not making this any better."

"Well, that's actually very nice of you because I've always had a dream to go to South Africa.", the girl said to Leo with sarcasm and a fake smile. "And my name is Laura by the way."

Leo balled his fists up and started forward, but Sammy held him back. "Ohhhhhhhh! When I get my hands on you! . . . . . . . "

"You'll do what?!", Laura spit back, while placing her hands on her hips.

"I'll . . . I'll . . . I'll freeze you in your tracks! Literally.", he answered. Laura didn't know what to say to that. She was puzzled at what he said and what he meant when he said he could literally freeze her in her tracks. She fell silent. Laura then glanced over at her parents. The pair of them seemed to be having a pretty aggressive discussion. They were whispering extremely fast while occasionally taking quick looks at the two boys. Laura listened intently.

"Honey, I know you don't want it to be true, but it's true. It's time . . .", she heard her dad whisper to her mom.

"What did that mean?", Laura thought. "What is it time for? Did this have anything to do with her? Why did her parents look so scared and nervous? Did this have anything to do with the boys? What was going on?" Laura had millions of questions and it was all mind boggling.

Her parents then suddenly looked up and immediately became quiet, when they noticed that everyone in the room was staring at them. Laura's mom cleared her throat nervously.

"How about you girls sit down with these boys for a second, and like Anna said, let them tell you their story. I'll get the boy a bandage for his head.", the girls' mom said as she and her husband rushed out of the room.

Laura and Anna plopped down on the living room couch by the window and Sammy and Leo reluctantly followed, and sat on the opposite sofa. There was a pause of awkward silence.

"Soooooo, what's your story?", Anna asked patiently.

"Oh, yeah, right, our story.", Sammy mumbled. "Ummmm . . . . . . . Well, to start with, we are photographers and we were in Evergreen woods taking pictures of the sky, the trees, the birds and stuff like that. Leo and I were just taking a picture of a woodpecker, when we saw a black bear and it's cubs. The mama black bear must have been sick or something, because when it saw us, it did not walk away like most bears do. Instead, it growled at us and then charged. Obviously we ran for our lives and . . . . .

"Running from a crazy bear is a really bad idea. You're suppose to play dead.", Anna cut in.

"Ok then miss know it all! Can you let my brother talk?", Leo said.

"It's fine Leo. ", Sammy said. "Anyways, we ran for our lives, and then we quickly climbed up some trees and then. . . . . . . . . ."

"Don't you know that black bears can climb trees?!", Anna cut in again.

"Yes, I know, but we were under pressure!", Sammy said defensively. "Now let me continue. We quickly climbed up some trees and the bear followed us up mere seconds later. Then . . . . ."

"An ugly monster flew from the sky and attacked us!", Leo interrupted. Sammy glared at Leo.

"Ha! Ha! Ha! Very funny Leo. He's just joking. Leo is always joking around.", Sammy said nervously with a half hearted laugh. "Ahh, where was I?"

"The bear was climbing up the tree, and then an ugly monster attacked you.", Laura offered.

"No! No! No! A monster never attacked us!", Sammy said quickly while shaking his head.

"Uhh, Sammy?", Leo asked slowly while continually poking Sammy in the arm.

"Don't interrupt.", Sammy said as he swatted Leo's hand away. "As I was saying . . . . ."

"Sammy!" Leo yelled, this time poking Sammy even harder.

"What is your problem!?", Sammy asked.

Leo leaned forward. "Look at what they're wearing around their necks.", he whispered to Sammy. Sammy looked up at the girls. They were both wearing matching necklaces, strung with a glass pendant. Both of the pendants looked oddly familiar. They had a single flower with leaf shaped petals painted on them. The only difference between the two pendants was the color of the flowers. Anna's flower was pink and Laura's flower was orange. Then he realized why they looked so familiar. He had one that looked exactly like theirs, except the flower on his pendant was green. Leo had one too, except the flower on his was blue. His eyes widened.

"Do you know what this means?", Leo whispered.

"Yes. It means that we finally found fall and spring!", Sammy whispered excitedly.

"Helloooo! We're still here! Are you done with your gossiping girls whispering?", Laura said impatiently. "Finish the story already!"

"We're not girls.", Leo grumbled. "And our story was a lie."

"That's another reason why we should give you up to the cops.", Laura said.

"I really don't want these girls to be the ones.", Leo whispered to Sammy. "I was hoping for maybe some cute girls." Sammy rolled his eyes.

"Why did you lie to us?, Anna asked. "I'm going to have to agree with my sister about you guys being turned into the police. Lying to us is not really helping your reputation right now. Can you tell us the real story?"

"Yes, actually I was just about to do that very thing, but no matter how crazy this story is, you have to promise that you will believe us.", Sammy said sternly.

"I will.", replied Anna.

"Fine.", replied Laura with a sigh. "As long as it's a good story."

"Oh, it's very good. Maybe even mind blowing. You'll see.", Leo said.

**Chapter 4**

"There's a legend that the world is separated into two groups, mortals and super beings.", Sammy began. "There's a legend that long ago, these super beings were being ruled by an evil ruler who had powers stronger than anyone's. They say he killed anyone that got on his bad side and stood in his path. He went by the name, Deathvol. There was a war. Super-beings against Deathvol. Billions of people against one."

"Who won?", Laura asked

"Some people say that the super-beings won and Deathvol was defeated. Some say that he went into hiding and is still alive to this very day.", Sammy explained. "Now this is where the story gets kind of interesting. Do you know who Mother Nature is?"

"Yes.", the girls said in union.

"Well, people say that Mother Nature was the one who defeated Deathvol.", Sammy explained. "Do you want to know something else about Mother Nature that's interesting? Well, a couple of months after she defeated Deathvol she had a daughter. Then, about 2 years after that, she had another daughter. No one knows if any of this is true, but if it is true, those two girls who were born from Mother Nature are said to have powers. The child that was born first is said to have the powers of Spring. She is said to have brown hair the color of the fresh clean dirt of a garden. Her eyes are said to be as bright and warm as the awakening sun and light green like the newly sprouted plants in early Spring. She is energetic and loves to run like the prancing deer, the hopping bunnies, and the skittering chipmunks. She is also said to be beautiful and sweet like the flowers that bloom in the sun. The child that was born second is said to have the powers of Fall. She is said to have hair as red as the colorful tree tops in autumn and have amber colored eyes. She is said to be as graceful as the falling leaves, but fierce like the frigid winds of October. She loves adventure and is sly, sneaky, and curious like the leaves that creep off their branches and race away in the wind.", Sammy finally finished.

Everything in the room fell silent. Leo stared at the girls watching to see how they would react to Sammy's story.

"Soooooooo, what are you trying to say to us?", Laura asked slowly.

"Oh my gosh! Are you that dumb! Did you go to school at all?!", Leo chuckled in disbelief.

"Laura, they're trying to say that we are the two girls in the story that were born from Mother Nature.", Anna choked.

Laura burst out laughing uncontrollably. "That's ridiculous!", she said between giggles. "You're joking right?" She stopped laughing and looked at everyone else.

"Anna's right, ugly duck. Your sister obviously went to school.", Leo smirked.

"Did you just call me ugly duck?!", Laura demanded.

"Leo, knock it off!", Sammy said. "The girls probably have questions and you're not making it very easy for them. They just found out that their real mom is Mother Nature and that they have magical powers. It's probably a lot for them to take in."

"Thank you!", Anna and Lara said in union.

"Wait a minute! That means I was right! Remember how I thought that the feelings I have during Fall mean something, Anna?

"Oh, yeah, I remember! Wow, that's weird how you knew that."

"That is kind of weird", Sammy says. "Do you girls have any questions about all of this?"

"Oh, yes! I have a lot of questions and I bet Laura does too. She's really curious and her mind is probably exploding right now. Ok, First of all, how do you know all this information? Do you guys have any powers? How do you guys tie into this?"

"Good questions. Ummmmmmmmmmm . . . . . . . We don't exactly know the answers to those questions," Sammy confessed. "But I can tell you this. I have the power of Summer and Leo has Winter powers. We don't exactly know how we tie in with you. Mother Nature isn't our mom, so we don't know how we got our powers. Our fake parents aren't mortals like yours are. Our fake parents are super-beings, so throughout our life our fake parents trained us to use our powers. They told us stories of the war and about the history of super-beings."

"What kind of powers do super-beings have? Do they have powers of the seasons like us?", Laura asked curiously.

"No, the four of us are special.", Sammy answered. "Super-beings usually have powers like flying, telekinesis, super strength, superhuman intelligence, and other stuff like that. When a super-being is born you can't tell what kind of power they have right away. When super-beings grow up, signs gradually show up, like our fake dad for example, he has super-speed. His first sign was when he was 8 years old. He was running around on the playground at school and his friends and him were playing tag. He was it. He was chasing after one of his friends when he all of a sudden sped up uncontrollably. He was going 60 mph and he couldn't control it. He slammed right into the kid that he was trying to tag. They both ended up getting huge bloody noses and the kid that our dad ran over, got a major concussion and some broken bones."

"Yikes!", Laura exclaimed. "Do all powers have signs like that?"

"No.", Sammy answered. "It all depends on what kind of power you have. Our fake dad had a couple of little signs that weren't that bad, but most of his signs were really bad. His worst one happened when he was 14 years old. He was playing in a football game and he had the ball. He was running towards the touchdown zone, when he started running 229,951 mph. He was a blur and no one could see him because he was going so fast. He couldn't stop! His legs finally stopped moving, which was a great relief for him, but the problem was that he didn't know where he was. He finally found out that he was in Winchester, United Kingdom (Great Britain). Luckily he had his phone and he called his parents. His parents told him that it was going to take them about 20 hours to get over there so he would have to stay the night somewhere. So he went door to door asking people if he could stay the night because he didn't have any other ideas of what to do. He didn't have any money and he was in a place that he had never been to. A nice old woman finally took him in. Then at about 9:00 in the morning (United Kingdom time) his parents called him asking where he was and he told them the address of where he was staying. They picked him up about 20 minutes later and he was headed back home on a plane with his parents a couple minutes after that.

"Wow, that must have been a big scare for his parents.", Anna said.

"Yeah, it was.", Sammy agreed. "But it was a big scare for him as well."

"How does all this super-beings thing work exactly?", Laura asked slowly. "I mean, how are they hiding from the mortals? Do they just act like regular mortals? How is a super-being born? Can a super-being marry a mortal? Is this like Harry Potter, where there are pure bloods, muggles, squibs, and half bloods? "

"Ok, slow down missy!", Leo cut in. "What is going on inside that little brain of yours? Do you always have these many questions?"

Laura glared at Leo. "I wasn't talking to you." She turned back to look at Sammy. "Can you please answer my dying questions quickly, before Mr. Leo Frost over here interrupts again?"

"Sure thing. I'll try my best to answer your questions. What do you want to know first?", Sammy asked.

"Just tell me the whole history of how super-beings started and stuff.", Laura simply answered. "I just want to know how things work in the life of a super-being."

"Ok, well, super-beings have been living under the noses of the mortals for ages now. We just act like all the other mortals in the world. We do this for two reasons. One, because if the mortals knew about us, they might make us all into slaves, so that we can do their dirty work with our powers. Two, you know how I said that some people say that Deathvol went into hiding after the war? Well, we act like the mortals to also hide from Deathvol in case he comes back. Super-beings live all over the world. In order to be a super-being both of your parents have to be super-beings. There has never been a born super-being who has had a mortal for a parent, but it could be possible. You could marry a mortal, but that is very risky because you could easily expose our whole entire species of people. You also wouldn't be able to continue generations of super-beings because like I said before, no super-being has ever been born if they had a mortal parent.

"That's kind of sad.", Anna said.

"And why is that? Do you have any dreamy boyfriends?", Leo asked.

"Maybe. It's really none of your concern. Is it?" Anna blushed.

"I didn't know you liked someone! Why didn't you tell me!? Who is it?", Laura asked excitedly.

"I never said I had a boyfriend or liked someone", Anna replied hotly. "Please, would you all just drop it!"

"Wait a minute! Why did you guys burst into our house in the first place? You guys aren't really photographers. Are you?", Laura asked the boys.

"Of course we're not photographers! If we were I would not be very good at it. I would probably wake up the whole forest when trying to take a picture of an animal. I'm also very active. I can't really sit in one place for a long time. I get fidgety.", Leo said. "And besides we already told you that we lied about that."

"Then what's the real reason why you came here?", Laura asked again. Leo launched into the whole story about how they got chased by a Flamingshadow and why his head was bleeding. When he finally finished Laura asked, "Why was the Flamingshadow chasing you in the first place?"

"We were looking for you girls. Our fake dad had told us the tale of Mother Nature and the two girls who had the power of Spring and Fall. He said we had to find you once we were trained. He said that once we found you that we would have to bring you to him and help him train you. Once you were ready, we would have to journey to Deathvol's dump of a castle and defeat him."

"What? I thought Deathvol was dead or in hiding? Why do we have to kill him?"

"He's not dead and he isn't in hiding anymore. He's becoming more powerful by the second. We don't know why he got so powerful all of a sudden or why he came out of hiding, but he's been sending his followers after us ever since he found out we were looking for you."

"Why?"

"Because he knows that if we find you, we will be able to stop him once and for all. When all four of us are together we are very powerful."

"Makes sense.", Laura replied.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 1**

"What are you doing?", Anna asked, as she stepped outside and closed the house door behind her. Laura was laying in the grass of the backyard, and looking up at the puffy clouds in the sky. Colorful leaves danced around her head and raced in the wind.

"I don't know.", Laura replied. "I just feel like being outside today and besides it's a beautiful day."

Laura was right about that, Anna thought. It was a crisp autumn afternoon and the sun was shining high in the sky. It's warm rays of beaming sunlight warmed Anna up, as she sat down and laid herself down beside her sister.

"I just love this time of year.", sighed Laura. "It makes me happier and calmer. I don't know why. It just does! Do you ever have that kind of feeling?"

"Sort of. I don't really have that kind of feeling now, but I do sort of have it during the spring sometimes.", replied Anna.

"Don't you ever think that that feeling means something? I mean, something important?", Laura asked hopefully.

"I don't know. I can't really say I have.", Anna says. "Come on. Let's go back inside. Mom wants us to do our chores before dinner."

"Okay.", Laura sighed, as she got up and followed her sister inside.

Laura and Anna live in a small house that sits at the end of Pine Lane near the Evergreen woods. It is a rather peaceful place to settle down and live. The street has a nice neighborhood and isn't at all that busy. The girls' family hate the busy city, so Pine Lane is perfect.

The girls' parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frable, are kind and the best possible parents a kid could ever ask for. They have all the traits parents should have. They are kind, gentle, protective of their beloved children, helpful, and above all, loving. They would do anything to protect and help Laura and Anna.

Like their parents, Laura and Anna are awesome. Laura has long, curly, pretty, red hair and warm, bright, amber eyes. She is curious, optimistic, graceful and enjoys an adventure. She is 13 years old and is younger than her sister. Anna is quite different than Laura. Anna has long, straight, dark, chocolate, brown hair and dazzling, light, green eyes. She is energetic, beautiful, sweet, and loves to run. She is 15 years old and is the oldest of the two sisters.

**. . . . . **

**Chapter 2**

"Did we lose it!?", Leo asked hopefully, as he ran for his life through the woods, while dodging trees and jumping over tree roots. His pack bounced on his back, making it hard to run.

"No! Not yet!", Sammy yelled back, as he too, ran faster than he'd ever ran before.

"What is that thing?", Leo cried.

"I think it's a Flamingshadow! They're Deathvol's followers and he must of sent one to kidnap us and bring us to his castle!

"Castle? That thing is not a castle! It's more like a dump that a dragon used for a bathroom!", Leo yelled back in disgust. He glanced up. The monster was hideous. It looked half phoenix and half dog; a dog Leo would hate to have as a pet. It's teeth looked like they were too big for it's mouth and were yellowed and stained with blood from it's last victim. It had dark red wings of a phoenix protruding from it's back and it's body was covered with brown fur. Leo couldn't believe that the regular mortals couldn't see it.

"Leo! Stop daydreaming back there! A man eating beast is chasing us! Get a move on! Oh, and watch where you step. There's tree roots sticking out of the ground everywhere." Leo stopped looking up at the beast, tripped on a root, and smacked his face into a pine tree. Leo groaned and touched his hand to his head. Blood trickled down the side of his face. The Flamingshadow took the advantage and tucked it's feathery wings into it's body and went into a speedy dive towards Leo.

"I will get you Leo and this time you won't get away!", the mutt rasped. "I will take you to my master, and when he is finished with you, you will become my chew toy!"

"Well, that's very appealing and I would love to become your chew toy, but I'm kind of busy running away from you and that creepy dude, Deathvol.", Leo muttered as he staggered up from the ground, and rubbed his aching head.

"YOU WILL DIE LEO!", the monster said.

"Leo, look out! Flamingshadows can breath fire!", Sammy yelled, as he ran to his brother to help. Balls of flame rained down from above, catching the trees on fire. "Leo! Get behind me!", Sammy yelled even louder. Sammy concentrated on his powers and thought of flowing rivers, calm oceans, trickling streams, and splashing ponds. He channeled his powers into those thoughts and water sprang from his palm, gallons and gallons of water. He aimed the water at the raining flames and the fire extinguished into steaming mist. The monster was on top of them now, and the only thing stopping it was the sputtering flow of water. Sammy couldn't keep this up for long. Summoning this much water was draining his strength. Soon, the mutt would strike down, gather them in it's claws, and soar off towards Deathvol, who would only want to kill them. "Leo! Do you see that house on the edge of the woods? Go to it, knock on the door, and get inside no matter who comes to the door! You hear me!"

"What about you?", Leo asked.

"I'll be fine! Just go!", Sammy yelled.

"Why would I do that! I never go in the woods. That's what toilets are for. Duh!", Leo said.

"Uhhhhhhhh! Leo! You have a sick mind! That's gross man, really gross! You know what I meant! Leave!", Sammy said. Leo laughed.

"I'm not leaving without you! I need you!", Leo cried in a sarcastic voice. "What if there's strangers in that house."

"Fine! Do you have a better plan?!", Sammy cried in frustration. Why was Leo acting so calm and joking about this. Didn't he know they were in a life or death situation?

"Just watch the Leo Master!", Leo said dramatically. He walked past Sammy. "Could you turn that little hose coming out of your hand off?! It would be much appreciated." Sammy forced the water to come to a stop. "Thanks." He walked straight up to the Flamingshadow and yelled "FREEZE RAY!" A blast of chilly ice shot out of the palm of his hand and froze the monster in a suspended block of ice. "And that's how it's done!", Leo cried with a bow.

"Show off.", Sammy said. "Let's go to that house." They trudged through the woods and to the house. It was quite small, but it looked pretty cozy. Then they heard an ear piercing BARK! behind them. Both Sammy and Leo whirled around. The mutt had melted most of the ice away and it's paw was the only thing still encased in ice.

"How did it get out of the ice so quickly!?", Leo asked in amazement. "That was one of my best ice block encasings!"

"It doesn't matter how it got out! Just RUN!" Sammy and Leo ran to the house as fast as they could. Then they heard another BARK! This time it sounded only about a couple feet away. The monster must have broke free of that last piece of ice. They got to the doorsteps of the house. Leo rang the doorbell like a madman.

"OPEN UP! OPEN UP!", he screeched. The door opened. A girl about 13 years old had answered.

"What do you-", she began to say, but she couldn't finish, because the boys rushed forward, knocked her over, and slammed the door shut behind them.

**Chapter 3**

"What do you think you're doing?!", the 13 year old girl screamed at the boys as she got up.

"Something!", Leo said. "And it's none of your beeswax." They were standing in a room that was probably the living room. The walls were painted a pearly white and the carpet was shaggy and the color of sand. A big window with silky, creme colored curtains covered up most of the space on the wall, in front of the room. A light, blue sofa sat in front of the window, and a bookshelf full of movies and books sat on the left side of the sofa. On the opposite wall of the window, laid a plush chair that was the same shade of blue as the sofa. Between the chair and the sofa, was a white coffee table, piled high with more books. Another white table, sat next to the bookshelf with a T.V rested comfortably on top.

"MOM! DAD! ANNA! COME QUICK! THERE'S SOME RUDE STRANGERS IN OUR HOUSE!", the girl yelled. A man and a woman that must have been the girl's parents, came running in from the kitchen. Then two seconds later, a girl about Sammy's age bounded down from upstairs. She must be Anna.

"What's going on?", Anna asked. "And why is his head bleeding?!" Anna pointed at Leo.

"I don't know. The doorbell rang like a thousand times, so I went and answered the door, and these two boys were at the door, but before I could ask them what they wanted, they scrambled in, knocking me down in the process, and slammed the door shut.", the girl replied angrily.

"Do you think we should call the police on them?", the mom said.

"Yes!", the girl said excitedly with a mischievous grin.

"No!", Leo, Sammy, and Anna said together at the same time. Leo and Sammy looked at Anna in disbelief.

"I think we should at least give them a chance to state their story before we decide to hand them over to the police.", explained Anna.

"No, let's call the police and they can ask them what their story is in court. They are charged of technically breaking into our house and knocking over a sweet, little, innocent child!", said the girl.

"What's your name?", Leo asked the girl through gritted teeth. "Because I'm about to ship you off to South Africa!"

"Leo, calm down!", Sammy whispered. "You're not making this any better."

"Well, that's actually very nice of you because I've always had a dream to go to South Africa.", the girl said to Leo with sarcasm and a fake smile. "And my name is Laura by the way."

Leo balled his fists up and started forward, but Sammy held him back. "Ohhhhhhhh! When I get my hands on you! . . . . . . . "

"You'll do what?!", Laura spit back, while placing her hands on her hips.

"I'll . . . I'll . . . I'll freeze you in your tracks! Literally.", he answered. Laura didn't know what to say to that. She was puzzled at what he said and what he meant when he said he could literally freeze her in her tracks. She fell silent. Laura then glanced over at her parents. The pair of them seemed to be having a pretty aggressive discussion. They were whispering extremely fast while occasionally taking quick looks at the two boys. Laura listened intently.

"Honey, I know you don't want it to be true, but it's true. It's time . . .", she heard her dad whisper to her mom.

"What did that mean?", Laura thought. "What is it time for? Did this have anything to do with her? Why did her parents look so scared and nervous? Did this have anything to do with the boys? What was going on?" Laura had millions of questions and it was all mind boggling.

Her parents then suddenly looked up and immediately became quiet, when they noticed that everyone in the room was staring at them. Laura's mom cleared her throat nervously.

"How about you girls sit down with these boys for a second, and like Anna said, let them tell you their story. I'll get the boy a bandage for his head.", the girls' mom said as she and her husband rushed out of the room.

Laura and Anna plopped down on the living room couch by the window and Sammy and Leo reluctantly followed, and sat on the opposite sofa. There was a pause of awkward silence.

"Soooooo, what's your story?", Anna asked patiently.

"Oh, yeah, right, our story.", Sammy mumbled. "Ummmm . . . . . . . Well, to start with, we are photographers and we were in Evergreen woods taking pictures of the sky, the trees, the birds and stuff like that. Leo and I were just taking a picture of a woodpecker, when we saw a black bear and it's cubs. The mama black bear must have been sick or something, because when it saw us, it did not walk away like most bears do. Instead, it growled at us and then charged. Obviously we ran for our lives and . . . . .

"Running from a crazy bear is a really bad idea. You're suppose to play dead.", Anna cut in.

"Ok then miss know it all! Can you let my brother talk?", Leo said.

"It's fine Leo. ", Sammy said. "Anyways, we ran for our lives, and then we quickly climbed up some trees and then. . . . . . . . . ."

"Don't you know that black bears can climb trees?!", Anna cut in again.

"Yes, I know, but we were under pressure!", Sammy said defensively. "Now let me continue. We quickly climbed up some trees and the bear followed us up mere seconds later. Then . . . . ."

"An ugly monster flew from the sky and attacked us!", Leo interrupted. Sammy glared at Leo.

"Ha! Ha! Ha! Very funny Leo. He's just joking. Leo is always joking around.", Sammy said nervously with a half hearted laugh. "Ahh, where was I?"

"The bear was climbing up the tree, and then an ugly monster attacked you.", Laura offered.

"No! No! No! A monster never attacked us!", Sammy said quickly while shaking his head.

"Uhh, Sammy?", Leo asked slowly while continually poking Sammy in the arm.

"Don't interrupt.", Sammy said as he swatted Leo's hand away. "As I was saying . . . . ."

"Sammy!" Leo yelled, this time poking Sammy even harder.

"What is your problem!?", Sammy asked.

Leo leaned forward. "Look at what they're wearing around their necks.", he whispered to Sammy. Sammy looked up at the girls. They were both wearing matching necklaces, strung with a glass pendant. Both of the pendants looked oddly familiar. They had a single flower with leaf shaped petals painted on them. The only difference between the two pendants was the color of the flowers. Anna's flower was pink and Laura's flower was orange. Then he realized why they looked so familiar. He had one that looked exactly like theirs, except the flower on his pendant was green. Leo had one too, except the flower on his was blue. His eyes widened.

"Do you know what this means?", Leo whispered.

"Yes. It means that we finally found fall and spring!", Sammy whispered excitedly.

"Helloooo! We're still here! Are you done with your gossiping girls whispering?", Laura said impatiently. "Finish the story already!"

"We're not girls.", Leo grumbled. "And our story was a lie."

"That's another reason why we should give you up to the cops.", Laura said.

"I really don't want these girls to be the ones.", Leo whispered to Sammy. "I was hoping for maybe some cute girls." Sammy rolled his eyes.

"Why did you lie to us?, Anna asked. "I'm going to have to agree with my sister about you guys being turned into the police. Lying to us is not really helping your reputation right now. Can you tell us the real story?"

"Yes, actually I was just about to do that very thing, but no matter how crazy this story is, you have to promise that you will believe us.", Sammy said sternly.

"I will.", replied Anna.

"Fine.", replied Laura with a sigh. "As long as it's a good story."

"Oh, it's very good. Maybe even mind blowing. You'll see.", Leo said.

**Chapter 4**

"There's a legend that the world is separated into two groups, mortals and super beings.", Sammy began. "There's a legend that long ago, these super beings were being ruled by an evil ruler who had powers stronger than anyone's. They say he killed anyone that got on his bad side and stood in his path. He went by the name, Deathvol. There was a war. Super-beings against Deathvol. Billions of people against one."

"Who won?", Laura asked

"Some people say that the super-beings won and Deathvol was defeated. Some say that he went into hiding and is still alive to this very day.", Sammy explained. "Now this is where the story gets kind of interesting. Do you know who Mother Nature is?"

"Yes.", the girls said in unison.

"Well, people say that Mother Nature was the one who defeated Deathvol.", Sammy explained. "Do you want to know something else about Mother Nature that's interesting? Well, a couple of months after she defeated Deathvol she had a daughter. Then, about 2 years after that, she had another daughter. No one knows if any of this is true, but if it is true, those two girls who were born from Mother Nature are said to have powers. The child that was born first is said to have the powers of Spring. She is said to have brown hair the color of the fresh clean dirt of a garden. Her eyes are said to be as bright and warm as the awakening sun and light green like the newly sprouted plants in early Spring. She is energetic and loves to run like the prancing deer, the hopping bunnies, and the skittering chipmunks. She is also said to be beautiful and sweet like the flowers that bloom in the sun. The child that was born second is said to have the powers of Fall. She is said to have hair as red as the colorful tree tops in autumn and have amber colored eyes. She is said to be as graceful as the falling leaves, but fierce like the frigid winds of October. She loves adventure and is sly, sneaky, and curious like the leaves that creep off their branches and race away in the wind.", Sammy finally finished.

Everything in the room fell silent. Leo stared at the girls watching to see how they would react to Sammy's story.

"Soooooooo, what are you trying to say to us?", Laura asked slowly.

"Oh my gosh! Are you that dumb! Did you go to school at all?!", Leo chuckled in disbelief.

"Laura, they're trying to say that we are the two girls in the story that were born from Mother Nature.", Anna choked.

Laura burst out laughing uncontrollably. "That's ridiculous!", she said between giggles. "You're joking right?" She stopped laughing and looked at everyone else.

"Anna's right, ugly duck. Your sister obviously went to school.", Leo smirked.

"Did you just call me ugly duck?!", Laura demanded.

"Leo, knock it off!", Sammy said. "The girls probably have questions and you're not making it very easy for them. They just found out that their real mom is Mother Nature and that they have magical powers. It's probably a lot for them to take in."

"Thank you!", Anna and Lara said in unison.

"Wait a minute! That means I was right! Remember how I thought that the feelings I have during Fall mean something, Anna?

"Oh, yeah, I remember! Wow, that's weird how you knew that."

"That is kind of weird", Sammy says. "Do you girls have any questions about all of this?"

"Oh, yes! I have a lot of questions and I bet Laura does too. She's really curious and her mind is probably exploding right now. Ok, First of all, how do you know all this information? Do you guys have any powers? How do you guys tie into this?"

"Good questions. Ummmmmmmmmmm . . . . . . . We don't exactly know the answers to those questions," Sammy confessed. "But I can tell you this. I have the power of Summer and Leo has Winter powers. We don't exactly know how we tie in with you. Mother Nature isn't our mom, so we don't know how we got our powers. Our fake parents aren't mortals like yours are. Our fake parents are super-beings, so throughout our life our fake parents trained us to use our powers. They told us stories of the war and about the history of super-beings."

"What kind of powers do super-beings have? Do they have powers of the seasons like us?", Laura asked curiously.

"No, the four of us are special.", Sammy answered. "Super-beings usually have powers like flying, telekinesis, super strength, superhuman intelligence, and other stuff like that. When a super-being is born you can't tell what kind of power they have right away. When super-beings grow up, signs gradually show up, like our fake dad for example, he has super-speed. His first sign was when he was 8 years old. He was running around on the playground at school and his friends and him were playing tag. He was it. He was chasing after one of his friends when he all of a sudden sped up uncontrollably. He was going 60 mph and he couldn't control it. He slammed right into the kid that he was trying to tag. They both ended up getting huge bloody noses and the kid that our dad ran over, got a major concussion and some broken bones."

"Yikes!", Laura exclaimed. "Do all powers have signs like that?"

"No.", Sammy answered. "It all depends on what kind of power you have. Our fake dad had a couple of little signs that weren't that bad, but most of his signs were really bad. His worst one happened when he was 14 years old. He was playing in a football game and he had the ball. He was running towards the touchdown zone, when he started running 229,951 mph. He was a blur and no one could see him because he was going so fast. He couldn't stop! His legs finally stopped moving, which was a great relief for him, but the problem was that he didn't know where he was. He finally found out that he was in Winchester, United Kingdom (Great Britain). Luckily he had his phone and he called his parents. His parents told him that it was going to take them about 20 hours to get over there so he would have to stay the night somewhere. So he went door to door asking people if he could stay the night because he didn't have any other ideas of what to do. He didn't have any money and he was in a place that he had never been to. A nice old woman finally took him in. Then at about 9:00 in the morning (United Kingdom time) his parents called him asking where he was and he told them the address of where he was staying. They picked him up about 20 minutes later and he was headed back home on a plane with his parents a couple minutes after that.

"Wow, that must have been a big scare for his parents.", Anna said.

"Yeah, it was.", Sammy agreed. "But it was a big scare for him as well."

"How does all this super-beings thing work exactly?", Laura asked slowly. "I mean, how are they hiding from the mortals? Do they just act like regular mortals? How is a super-being born? Can a super-being marry a mortal? Is this like Harry Potter, where there are pure bloods, muggles, squibs, and half bloods? "

"Ok, slow down missy!", Leo cut in. "What is going on inside that little brain of yours? Do you always have these many questions?"

Laura glared at Leo. "I wasn't talking to you." She turned back to look at Sammy. "Can you please answer my dying questions quickly, before Mr. Leo Frost over here interrupts again?"

"Sure thing. I'll try my best to answer your questions. What do you want to know first?", Sammy asked.

"Just tell me the whole history of how super-beings started and stuff.", Laura simply answered. "I just want to know how things work in the life of a super-being."

"Ok, well, super-beings have been living under the noses of the mortals for ages now. We just act like all the other mortals in the world. We do this for two reasons. One, because if the mortals knew about us, they might make us all into slaves, so that we can do their dirty work with our powers. Two, you know how I said that some people say that Deathvol went into hiding after the war? Well, we act like the mortals to also hide from Deathvol in case he comes back. Super-beings live all over the world. In order to be a super-being both of your parents have to be super-beings. There has never been a born super-being who has had a mortal for a parent, but it could be possible. You could marry a mortal, but that is very risky because you could easily expose our whole entire species of people. You also wouldn't be able to continue generations of super-beings because like I said before, no super-being has ever been born if they had a mortal parent.

"That's kind of sad.", Anna said.

"And why is that? Do you have any dreamy boyfriends?", Leo asked.

"Maybe. It's really none of your concern. Is it?" Anna blushed.

"I didn't know you liked someone! Why didn't you tell me!? Who is it?", Laura asked excitedly.

"I never said I had a boyfriend or liked someone", Anna replied hotly. "Please, would you all just drop it!"

"Wait a minute! Why did you guys burst into our house in the first place? You guys aren't really photographers. Are you?", Laura asked the boys.

"Of course we're not photographers! If we were I would not be very good at it. I would probably wake up the whole forest when trying to take a picture of an animal. I'm also very active. I can't really sit in one place for a long time. I get fidgety.", Leo said. "And besides we already told you that we lied about that."

"Then what's the real reason why you came here?", Laura asked again. Leo launched into the whole story about how they got chased by a Flamingshadow and why his head was bleeding. When he finally finished Laura asked, "Why was the Flamingshadow chasing you in the first place?"

"We were looking for you girls. Our fake dad had told us the tale of Mother Nature and the two girls who had the power of Spring and Fall. He said we had to find you once we were trained. He said that once we found you that we would have to bring you to him and help him train you. Once you were ready, we would have to journey to Deathvol's dump of a castle and defeat him."

"What? I thought Deathvol was dead or in hiding? Why do we have to kill him?"

"He's not dead and he isn't in hiding anymore. He's becoming more powerful by the second. We don't know why he got so powerful all of a sudden or why he came out of hiding, but he's been sending his followers after us ever since he found out we were looking for you."

"Why?"

"Because he knows that if we find you, we will be able to stop him once and for all. When all four of us are together we are very powerful."

"Makes sense.", Laura replied.

**Chapter 5**

Laura slouched on the couch in silence and gazed around the room, not knowing what to say. Then, she abruptly sat up and suddenly said, "I just noticed you're still bleeding! Are you ok?!"

Leo looked up. It looked like Laura had disturbed some deep thoughts that were whirling in his mind. "You just noticed that?", he asked incredibly. "I've been sitting here for at least a half an hour with blood trickling down the side of my face, and you haven't noticed?"

"Sorry. I wonder why mom hasn't brought the bandages yet."

Just on cue, Mrs. Frable shuffled in nervously along with her husband. She cleaned Leo's wound with a washcloth and bandaged it up gently.

"What took you so long? I was bleeding to death.", Leo said sarcastically.

She laughed. "Sorry, I couldn't find the bandages. There's just so much on my mind, and I guess I was just distracted with my thoughts that I wasn't looking for them hard enough."

"Mom. Dad. You know what we were talking about. Don't you.", Anna quietly spoke. "You knew that Mother Nature was our real mother. You knew that we had powers of the seasons. I can tell you knew. Why didn't you ever tell us?"

Their mom sighed. "I'm sorry. Your dad and I just wanted to protect you and we really didn't know how to tell you." She sat down on the couch beside the girls. "I didn't really want you to know anyways, because I didn't want you to go away. I wanted you to stay with me. I love you and I didn't want to lose you." She grabbed the two girls and they shared a group hug. "I'm sorry", she whispered, tears streaming down her face.

Tears streamed down Laura's face too. She was going to miss her mom. She then realized that she was still calling her fake mom, "mom". Should she stop calling her, "mom". She couldn't bare to think of doing that.

"You'll always be my mom.", Laura said between sobs. "I don't care if you're my fake mom or not! You'll always be my mom."

"And the both of you, will always be my daughter." She kissed Laura and Anna lightly on the head and hugged them one last time. She then said, as she walked into the kitchen, wiping her eyes, "You better go get ready and pack for your journey. I'll go pack you some food for the road."

Laura then said, turning to her dad, "You'll always be our dad too! I love you and you have been the best dad ever, and always will be. I'll miss you." Laura meant it. She would miss the times when her and her dad would play catch in the yard. She would miss the way her dad was so good with computers. She would miss the times her dad would help her with her homework, even when the work took until 10:00 pm to do, sometimes even 12:00 am when she had loads of homework in every subject.

"Ah . . . Come here sweetie!", he said gently while pulling her into a hug. "You sound as if this is our last time seeing each other."

"This might as well be because we're probably going to die out there anyways.", Anna spoke for the first time in a while.

"Don't say that! You're not going to die. I know you girls, and you are both strong, talented, and beautiful. I know you will stop at nothing to finish the job that's at hand. If you need any help, I'm here for you, so just give me a call. I love you", he let go of Laura and patted her on the head, then quickly hugged Anna, then went into the kitchen to help their mom.

**. . . . . **

Anna sat in the middle of her room wondering what exactly to bring. She had never been on any kind of journey. She wasn't really a curious person in the first place, so she never felt the need to go on adventures. She never really wanted to end up in any trouble either, that was Laura's job. Laura loved to go hiking in the woods and stray off the path and go looking for trouble and find adventure.

"Hey, are you ready?", Laura asked excitedly. She stood in the doorway, waiting impatiently with a backpack slung over her shoulder, her red curls tied back into a ponytail and her favorite baseball cap sat snug on her head. She wore a black sweatshirt, jeans, and sneakers.

"I didn't even start."

"Want me to help?"

"Yes", Anna replied gratefully. Laura sat down her backpack and closed the door behind her. She went into Anna's closet and grabbed a pink T Shirt, a brown sweatshirt, some jeans, and a pair of sneakers.

"Put these on." Laura threw the clothes to Anna. Laura then found a backpack and filled it with some extra clothes, a hat, a warm blanket, a flashlight, and a lightweight sleeping bag. She then ran into the bathroom and came back with Anna's toothbrush, some toothpaste, and a small first aid kit, and put those into Anna's bag as well. When Anna was dressed, they grabbed their backpacks and went down stairs into the kitchen. There waited their mom, dad, Leo, and Sammy. Their mom stuffed a bag of food and money into the girls' packs and strapped some water bottles on them. Their parents then gave them all a big group hug, including Leo and Sammy, and told them all to be careful.

The four kids all waved goodbye as they walked outside into the chilly wind to start a journey that would change their lives forever.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 1**

"What are you doing?", Anna asked, as she stepped outside and closed the house door behind her. Laura was laying in the grass of the backyard, and looking up at the puffy clouds in the sky. Colorful leaves danced around her head and raced in the wind.

"I don't know.", Laura replied. "I just feel like being outside today and besides it's a beautiful day."

Laura was right about that, Anna thought. It was a crisp autumn afternoon and the sun was shining high in the sky. It's warm rays of beaming sunlight warmed Anna up, as she sat down and laid herself down beside her sister.

"I just love this time of year.", sighed Laura. "It makes me happier and calmer. I don't know why. It just does! Do you ever have that kind of feeling?"

"Sort of. I don't really have that kind of feeling now, but I do sort of have it during the spring sometimes.", replied Anna.

"Don't you ever think that that feeling means something? I mean, something important?", Laura asked hopefully.

"I don't know. I can't really say I have.", Anna says. "Come on. Let's go back inside. Mom wants us to do our chores before dinner."

"Okay.", Laura sighed, as she got up and followed her sister inside.

Laura and Anna live in a small house that sits at the end of Pine Lane near the Evergreen woods. It is a rather peaceful place to settle down and live. The street has a nice neighborhood and isn't at all that busy. The girls' family hate the busy city, so Pine Lane is perfect.

The girls' parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frable, are kind and the best possible parents a kid could ever ask for. They have all the traits parents should have. They are kind, gentle, protective of their beloved children, helpful, and above all, loving. They would do anything to protect and help Laura and Anna.

Like their parents, Laura and Anna are awesome. Laura has long, curly, pretty, red hair and warm, bright, amber eyes. She is curious, optimistic, graceful and enjoys an adventure. She is 13 years old and is younger than her sister. Anna is quite different than Laura. Anna has long, straight, dark, chocolate, brown hair and dazzling, light, green eyes. She is energetic, beautiful, sweet, and loves to run. She is 15 years old and is the oldest of the two sisters.

**. . . . . **

**Chapter 2**

"Did we lose it!?", Leo asked hopefully, as he ran for his life through the woods, while dodging trees and jumping over tree roots. His pack bounced on his back, making it hard to run.

"No! Not yet!", Sammy yelled back, as he too, ran faster than he'd ever ran before.

"What is that thing?", Leo cried.

"I think it's a Flamingshadow! They're Deathvol's followers and he must of sent one to kidnap us and bring us to his castle!

"Castle? That thing is not a castle! It's more like a dump that a dragon used for a bathroom!", Leo yelled back in disgust. He glanced up. The monster was hideous. It looked half phoenix and half dog; a dog Leo would hate to have as a pet. It's teeth looked like they were too big for it's mouth and were yellowed and stained with blood from it's last victim. It had dark red wings of a phoenix protruding from it's back and it's body was covered with brown fur. Leo couldn't believe that the regular mortals couldn't see it.

"Leo! Stop daydreaming back there! A man eating beast is chasing us! Get a move on! Oh, and watch where you step. There's tree roots sticking out of the ground everywhere." Leo stopped looking up at the beast, tripped on a root, and smacked his face into a pine tree. Leo groaned and touched his hand to his head. Blood trickled down the side of his face. The Flamingshadow took the advantage and tucked it's feathery wings into it's body and went into a speedy dive towards Leo.

"I will get you Leo and this time you won't get away!", the mutt rasped. "I will take you to my master, and when he is finished with you, you will become my chew toy!"

"Well, that's very appealing and I would love to become your chew toy, but I'm kind of busy running away from you and that creepy dude, Deathvol.", Leo muttered as he staggered up from the ground, and rubbed his aching head.

"YOU WILL DIE LEO!", the monster said.

"Leo, look out! Flamingshadows can breath fire!", Sammy yelled, as he ran to his brother to help. Balls of flame rained down from above, catching the trees on fire. "Leo! Get behind me!", Sammy yelled even louder. Sammy concentrated on his powers and thought of flowing rivers, calm oceans, trickling streams, and splashing ponds. He channeled his powers into those thoughts and water sprang from his palm, gallons and gallons of water. He aimed the water at the raining flames and the fire extinguished into steaming mist. The monster was on top of them now, and the only thing stopping it was the sputtering flow of water. Sammy couldn't keep this up for long. Summoning this much water was draining his strength. Soon, the mutt would strike down, gather them in it's claws, and soar off towards Deathvol, who would only want to kill them. "Leo! Do you see that house on the edge of the woods? Go to it, knock on the door, and get inside no matter who comes to the door! You hear me!"

"What about you?", Leo asked.

"I'll be fine! Just go!", Sammy yelled.

"Why would I do that! I never go in the woods. That's what toilets are for. Duh!", Leo said.

"Uhhhhhhhh! Leo! You have a sick mind! That's gross man, really gross! You know what I meant! Leave!", Sammy said. Leo laughed.

"I'm not leaving without you! I need you!", Leo cried in a sarcastic voice. "What if there's strangers in that house."

"Fine! Do you have a better plan?!", Sammy cried in frustration. Why was Leo acting so calm and joking about this. Didn't he know they were in a life or death situation?

"Just watch the Leo Master!", Leo said dramatically. He walked past Sammy. "Could you turn that little hose coming out of your hand off?! It would be much appreciated." Sammy forced the water to come to a stop. "Thanks." He walked straight up to the Flamingshadow and yelled "FREEZE RAY!" A blast of chilly ice shot out of the palm of his hand and froze the monster in a suspended block of ice. "And that's how it's done!", Leo cried with a bow.

"Show off.", Sammy said. "Let's go to that house." They trudged through the woods and to the house. It was quite small, but it looked pretty cozy. Then they heard an ear piercing BARK! behind them. Both Sammy and Leo whirled around. The mutt had melted most of the ice away and it's paw was the only thing still encased in ice.

"How did it get out of the ice so quickly!?", Leo asked in amazement. "That was one of my best ice block encasings!"

"It doesn't matter how it got out! Just RUN!" Sammy and Leo ran to the house as fast as they could. Then they heard another BARK! This time it sounded only about a couple feet away. The monster must have broke free of that last piece of ice. They got to the doorsteps of the house. Leo rang the doorbell like a madman.

"OPEN UP! OPEN UP!", he screeched. The door opened. A girl about 13 years old had answered.

"What do you-", she began to say, but she couldn't finish, because the boys rushed forward, knocked her over, and slammed the door shut behind them.

**Chapter 3**

"What do you think you're doing?!", the 13 year old girl screamed at the boys as she got up.

"Something!", Leo said. "And it's none of your beeswax." They were standing in a room that was probably the living room. The walls were painted a pearly white and the carpet was shaggy and the color of sand. A big window with silky, creme colored curtains covered up most of the space on the wall, in front of the room. A light, blue sofa sat in front of the window, and a bookshelf full of movies and books sat on the left side of the sofa. On the opposite wall of the window, laid a plush chair that was the same shade of blue as the sofa. Between the chair and the sofa, was a white coffee table, piled high with more books. Another white table, sat next to the bookshelf with a T.V rested comfortably on top.

"MOM! DAD! ANNA! COME QUICK! THERE'S SOME RUDE STRANGERS IN OUR HOUSE!", the girl yelled. A man and a woman that must have been the girl's parents, came running in from the kitchen. Then two seconds later, a girl about Sammy's age bounded down from upstairs. She must be Anna.

"What's going on?", Anna asked. "And why is his head bleeding?!" Anna pointed at Leo.

"I don't know. The doorbell rang like a thousand times, so I went and answered the door, and these two boys were at the door, but before I could ask them what they wanted, they scrambled in, knocking me down in the process, and slammed the door shut.", the girl replied angrily.

"Do you think we should call the police on them?", the mom said.

"Yes!", the girl said excitedly with a mischievous grin.

"No!", Leo, Sammy, and Anna said together at the same time. Leo and Sammy looked at Anna in disbelief.

"I think we should at least give them a chance to state their story before we decide to hand them over to the police.", explained Anna.

"No, let's call the police and they can ask them what their story is in court. They are charged of technically breaking into our house and knocking over a sweet, little, innocent child!", said the girl.

"What's your name?", Leo asked the girl through gritted teeth. "Because I'm about to ship you off to South Africa!"

"Leo, calm down!", Sammy whispered. "You're not making this any better."

"Well, that's actually very nice of you because I've always had a dream to go to South Africa.", the girl said to Leo with sarcasm and a fake smile. "And my name is Laura by the way."

Leo balled his fists up and started forward, but Sammy held him back. "Ohhhhhhhh! When I get my hands on you! . . . . . . . "

"You'll do what?!", Laura spit back, while placing her hands on her hips.

"I'll . . . I'll . . . I'll freeze you in your tracks! Literally.", he answered. Laura didn't know what to say to that. She was puzzled at what he said and what he meant when he said he could literally freeze her in her tracks. She fell silent. Laura then glanced over at her parents. The pair of them seemed to be having a pretty aggressive discussion. They were whispering extremely fast while occasionally taking quick looks at the two boys. Laura listened intently.

"Honey, I know you don't want it to be true, but it's true. It's time . . .", she heard her dad whisper to her mom.

"What did that mean?", Laura thought. "What is it time for? Did this have anything to do with her? Why did her parents look so scared and nervous? Did this have anything to do with the boys? What was going on?" Laura had millions of questions and it was all mind boggling.

Her parents then suddenly looked up and immediately became quiet, when they noticed that everyone in the room was staring at them. Laura's mom cleared her throat nervously.

"How about you girls sit down with these boys for a second, and like Anna said, let them tell you their story. I'll get the boy a bandage for his head.", the girls' mom said as she and her husband rushed out of the room.

Laura and Anna plopped down on the living room couch by the window and Sammy and Leo reluctantly followed, and sat on the opposite sofa. There was a pause of awkward silence.

"Soooooo, what's your story?", Anna asked patiently.

"Oh, yeah, right, our story.", Sammy mumbled. "Ummmm . . . . . . . Well, to start with, we are photographers and we were in Evergreen woods taking pictures of the sky, the trees, the birds and stuff like that. Leo and I were just taking a picture of a woodpecker, when we saw a black bear and it's cubs. The mama black bear must have been sick or something, because when it saw us, it did not walk away like most bears do. Instead, it growled at us and then charged. Obviously we ran for our lives and . . . . .

"Running from a crazy bear is a really bad idea. You're suppose to play dead.", Anna cut in.

"Ok then miss know it all! Can you let my brother talk?", Leo said.

"It's fine Leo. ", Sammy said. "Anyways, we ran for our lives, and then we quickly climbed up some trees and then. . . . . . . . . ."

"Don't you know that black bears can climb trees?!", Anna cut in again.

"Yes, I know, but we were under pressure!", Sammy said defensively. "Now let me continue. We quickly climbed up some trees and the bear followed us up mere seconds later. Then . . . . ."

"An ugly monster flew from the sky and attacked us!", Leo interrupted. Sammy glared at Leo.

"Ha! Ha! Ha! Very funny Leo. He's just joking. Leo is always joking around.", Sammy said nervously with a half hearted laugh. "Ahh, where was I?"

"The bear was climbing up the tree, and then an ugly monster attacked you.", Laura offered.

"No! No! No! A monster never attacked us!", Sammy said quickly while shaking his head.

"Uhh, Sammy?", Leo asked slowly while continually poking Sammy in the arm.

"Don't interrupt.", Sammy said as he swatted Leo's hand away. "As I was saying . . . . ."

"Sammy!" Leo yelled, this time poking Sammy even harder.

"What is your problem!?", Sammy asked.

Leo leaned forward. "Look at what they're wearing around their necks.", he whispered to Sammy. Sammy looked up at the girls. They were both wearing matching necklaces, strung with a glass pendant. Both of the pendants looked oddly familiar. They had a single flower with leaf shaped petals painted on them. The only difference between the two pendants was the color of the flowers. Anna's flower was pink and Laura's flower was orange. Then he realized why they looked so familiar. He had one that looked exactly like theirs, except the flower on his pendant was green. Leo had one too, except the flower on his was blue. His eyes widened.

"Do you know what this means?", Leo whispered.

"Yes. It means that we finally found fall and spring!", Sammy whispered excitedly.

"Helloooo! We're still here! Are you done with your gossiping girls whispering?", Laura said impatiently. "Finish the story already!"

"We're not girls.", Leo grumbled. "And our story was a lie."

"That's another reason why we should give you up to the cops.", Laura said.

"I really don't want these girls to be the ones.", Leo whispered to Sammy. "I was hoping for maybe some cute girls." Sammy rolled his eyes.

"Why did you lie to us?, Anna asked. "I'm going to have to agree with my sister about you guys being turned into the police. Lying to us is not really helping your reputation right now. Can you tell us the real story?"

"Yes, actually I was just about to do that very thing, but no matter how crazy this story is, you have to promise that you will believe us.", Sammy said sternly.

"I will.", replied Anna.

"Fine.", replied Laura with a sigh. "As long as it's a good story."

"Oh, it's very good. Maybe even mind blowing. You'll see.", Leo said.

**Chapter 4**

"There's a legend that the world is separated into two groups, mortals and super beings.", Sammy began. "There's a legend that long ago, these super beings were being ruled by an evil ruler who had powers stronger than anyone's. They say he killed anyone that got on his bad side and stood in his path. He went by the name, Deathvol. There was a war. Super-beings against Deathvol. Billions of people against one."

"Who won?", Laura asked

"Some people say that the super-beings won and Deathvol was defeated. Some say that he went into hiding and is still alive to this very day.", Sammy explained. "Now this is where the story gets kind of interesting. Do you know who Mother Nature is?"

"Yes.", the girls said in unison.

"Well, people say that Mother Nature was the one who defeated Deathvol.", Sammy explained. "Do you want to know something else about Mother Nature that's interesting? Well, a couple of months after she defeated Deathvol she had a daughter. Then, about 2 years after that, she had another daughter. No one knows if any of this is true, but if it is true, those two girls who were born from Mother Nature are said to have powers. The child that was born first is said to have the powers of Spring. She is said to have brown hair the color of the fresh clean dirt of a garden. Her eyes are said to be as bright and warm as the awakening sun and light green like the newly sprouted plants in early Spring. She is energetic and loves to run like the prancing deer, the hopping bunnies, and the skittering chipmunks. She is also said to be beautiful and sweet like the flowers that bloom in the sun. The child that was born second is said to have the powers of Fall. She is said to have hair as red as the colorful tree tops in autumn and have amber colored eyes. She is said to be as graceful as the falling leaves, but fierce like the frigid winds of October. She loves adventure and is sly, sneaky, and curious like the leaves that creep off their branches and race away in the wind.", Sammy finally finished.

Everything in the room fell silent. Leo stared at the girls watching to see how they would react to Sammy's story.

"Soooooooo, what are you trying to say to us?", Laura asked slowly.

"Oh my gosh! Are you that dumb! Did you go to school at all?!", Leo chuckled in disbelief.

"Laura, they're trying to say that we are the two girls in the story that were born from Mother Nature.", Anna choked.

Laura burst out laughing uncontrollably. "That's ridiculous!", she said between giggles. "You're joking right?" She stopped laughing and looked at everyone else.

"Anna's right, ugly duck. Your sister obviously went to school.", Leo smirked.

"Did you just call me ugly duck?!", Laura demanded.

"Leo, knock it off!", Sammy said. "The girls probably have questions and you're not making it very easy for them. They just found out that their real mom is Mother Nature and that they have magical powers. It's probably a lot for them to take in."

"Thank you!", Anna and Lara said in unison.

"Wait a minute! That means I was right! Remember how I thought that the feelings I have during Fall mean something, Anna?

"Oh, yeah, I remember! Wow, that's weird how you knew that."

"That is kind of weird", Sammy says. "Do you girls have any questions about all of this?"

"Oh, yes! I have a lot of questions and I bet Laura does too. She's really curious and her mind is probably exploding right now. Ok, First of all, how do you know all this information? Do you guys have any powers? How do you guys tie into this?"

"Good questions. Ummmmmmmmmmm . . . . . . . We don't exactly know the answers to those questions," Sammy confessed. "But I can tell you this. I have the power of Summer and Leo has Winter powers. We don't exactly know how we tie in with you. Mother Nature isn't our mom, so we don't know how we got our powers. Our fake parents aren't mortals like yours are. Our fake parents are super-beings, so throughout our life our fake parents trained us to use our powers. They told us stories of the war and about the history of super-beings."

"What kind of powers do super-beings have? Do they have powers of the seasons like us?", Laura asked curiously.

"No, the four of us are special.", Sammy answered. "Super-beings usually have powers like flying, telekinesis, super strength, superhuman intelligence, and other stuff like that. When a super-being is born you can't tell what kind of power they have right away. When super-beings grow up, signs gradually show up, like our fake dad for example, he has super-speed. His first sign was when he was 8 years old. He was running around on the playground at school and his friends and him were playing tag. He was it. He was chasing after one of his friends when he all of a sudden sped up uncontrollably. He was going 60 mph and he couldn't control it. He slammed right into the kid that he was trying to tag. They both ended up getting huge bloody noses and the kid that our dad ran over, got a major concussion and some broken bones."

"Yikes!", Laura exclaimed. "Do all powers have signs like that?"

"No.", Sammy answered. "It all depends on what kind of power you have. Our fake dad had a couple of little signs that weren't that bad, but most of his signs were really bad. His worst one happened when he was 14 years old. He was playing in a football game and he had the ball. He was running towards the touchdown zone, when he started running 229,951 mph. He was a blur and no one could see him because he was going so fast. He couldn't stop! His legs finally stopped moving, which was a great relief for him, but the problem was that he didn't know where he was. He finally found out that he was in Winchester, United Kingdom (Great Britain). Luckily he had his phone and he called his parents. His parents told him that it was going to take them about 20 hours to get over there so he would have to stay the night somewhere. So he went door to door asking people if he could stay the night because he didn't have any other ideas of what to do. He didn't have any money and he was in a place that he had never been to. A nice old woman finally took him in. Then at about 9:00 in the morning (United Kingdom time) his parents called him asking where he was and he told them the address of where he was staying. They picked him up about 20 minutes later and he was headed back home on a plane with his parents a couple minutes after that.

"Wow, that must have been a big scare for his parents.", Anna said.

"Yeah, it was.", Sammy agreed. "But it was a big scare for him as well."

"How does all this super-beings thing work exactly?", Laura asked slowly. "I mean, how are they hiding from the mortals? Do they just act like regular mortals? How is a super-being born? Can a super-being marry a mortal? Is this like Harry Potter, where there are pure bloods, muggles, squibs, and half bloods? "

"Ok, slow down missy!", Leo cut in. "What is going on inside that little brain of yours? Do you always have these many questions?"

Laura glared at Leo. "I wasn't talking to you." She turned back to look at Sammy. "Can you please answer my dying questions quickly, before Mr. Leo Frost over here interrupts again?"

"Sure thing. I'll try my best to answer your questions. What do you want to know first?", Sammy asked.

"Just tell me the whole history of how super-beings started and stuff.", Laura simply answered. "I just want to know how things work in the life of a super-being."

"Ok, well, super-beings have been living under the noses of the mortals for ages now. We just act like all the other mortals in the world. We do this for two reasons. One, because if the mortals knew about us, they might make us all into slaves, so that we can do their dirty work with our powers. Two, you know how I said that some people say that Deathvol went into hiding after the war? Well, we act like the mortals to also hide from Deathvol in case he comes back. Super-beings live all over the world. In order to be a super-being both of your parents have to be super-beings. There has never been a born super-being who has had a mortal for a parent, but it could be possible. You could marry a mortal, but that is very risky because you could easily expose our whole entire species of people. You also wouldn't be able to continue generations of super-beings because like I said before, no super-being has ever been born if they had a mortal parent.

"That's kind of sad.", Anna said.

"And why is that? Do you have any dreamy boyfriends?", Leo asked.

"Maybe. It's really none of your concern. Is it?" Anna blushed.

"I didn't know you liked someone! Why didn't you tell me!? Who is it?", Laura asked excitedly.

"I never said I had a boyfriend or liked someone", Anna replied hotly. "Please, would you all just drop it!"

"Wait a minute! Why did you guys burst into our house in the first place? You guys aren't really photographers. Are you?", Laura asked the boys.

"Of course we're not photographers! If we were I would not be very good at it. I would probably wake up the whole forest when trying to take a picture of an animal. I'm also very active. I can't really sit in one place for a long time. I get fidgety.", Leo said. "And besides we already told you that we lied about that."

"Then what's the real reason why you came here?", Laura asked again. Leo launched into the whole story about how they got chased by a Flamingshadow and why his head was bleeding. When he finally finished Laura asked, "Why was the Flamingshadow chasing you in the first place?"

"We were looking for you girls. Our fake dad had told us the tale of Mother Nature and the two girls who had the power of Spring and Fall. He said we had to find you once we were trained. He said that once we found you that we would have to bring you to him and help him train you. Once you were ready, we would have to journey to Deathvol's dump of a castle and defeat him."

"What? I thought Deathvol was dead or in hiding? Why do we have to kill him?"

"He's not dead and he isn't in hiding anymore. He's becoming more powerful by the second. We don't know why he got so powerful all of a sudden or why he came out of hiding, but he's been sending his followers after us ever since he found out we were looking for you."

"Why?"

"Because he knows that if we find you, we will be able to stop him once and for all. When all four of us are together we are very powerful."

"Makes sense.", Laura replied.

**Chapter 5**

Laura slouched on the couch in silence and gazed around the room, not knowing what to say. Then, she abruptly sat up and suddenly said, "I just noticed you're still bleeding! Are you ok?!"

Leo looked up. It looked like Laura had disturbed some deep thoughts that were whirling in his mind. "You just noticed that?", he asked incredibly. "I've been sitting here for at least a half an hour with blood trickling down the side of my face, and you haven't noticed?"

"Sorry. I wonder why mom hasn't brought the bandages yet."

Just on cue, Mrs. Frable shuffled in nervously along with her husband. She cleaned Leo's wound with a washcloth and bandaged it up gently.

"What took you so long? I was bleeding to death.", Leo said sarcastically.

She laughed. "Sorry, I couldn't find the bandages. There's just so much on my mind, and I guess I was just distracted with my thoughts that I wasn't looking for them hard enough."

"Mom. Dad. You know what we were talking about. Don't you.", Anna quietly spoke. "You knew that Mother Nature was our real mother. You knew that we had powers of the seasons. I can tell you knew. Why didn't you ever tell us?"

Their mom sighed. "I'm sorry. Your dad and I just wanted to protect you and we really didn't know how to tell you." She sat down on the couch beside the girls. "I didn't really want you to know anyways, because I didn't want you to go away. I wanted you to stay with me. I love you and I didn't want to lose you." She grabbed the two girls and they shared a group hug. "I'm sorry", she whispered, tears streaming down her face.

Tears streamed down Laura's face too. She was going to miss her mom. She then realized that she was still calling her fake mom, "mom". Should she stop calling her, "mom". She couldn't bare to think of doing that.

"You'll always be my mom.", Laura said between sobs. "I don't care if you're my fake mom or not! You'll always be my mom."

"And the both of you, will always be my daughter." She kissed Laura and Anna lightly on the head and hugged them one last time. She then said, as she walked into the kitchen, wiping her eyes, "You better go get ready and pack for your journey. I'll go pack you some food for the road."

Laura then said, turning to her dad, "You'll always be our dad too! I love you and you have been the best dad ever, and always will be. I'll miss you." Laura meant it. She would miss the times when her and her dad would play catch in the yard. She would miss the way her dad was so good with computers. She would miss the times her dad would help her with her homework, even when the work took until 10:00 pm to do, sometimes even 12:00 am when she had loads of homework in every subject.

"Ah . . . Come here sweetie!", he said gently while pulling her into a hug. "You sound as if this is our last time seeing each other."

"This might as well be because we're probably going to die out there anyways.", Anna spoke for the first time in a while.

"Don't say that! You're not going to die. I know you girls, and you are both strong, talented, and beautiful. I know you will stop at nothing to finish the job that's at hand. If you need any help, I'm here for you, so just give me a call. I love you", he let go of Laura and patted her on the head, then quickly hugged Anna, then went into the kitchen to help their mom.

**. . . . . **

Anna sat in the middle of her room wondering what exactly to bring. She had never been on any kind of journey. She wasn't really a curious person in the first place, so she never felt the need to go on adventures. She never really wanted to end up in any trouble either, that was Laura's job. Laura loved to go hiking in the woods and stray off the path and go looking for trouble and find adventure.

"Hey, are you ready?", Laura asked excitedly. She stood in the doorway, waiting impatiently with a backpack slung over her shoulder, her red curls tied back into a ponytail and her favorite baseball cap sat snug on her head. She wore a black sweatshirt, jeans, and sneakers.

"I didn't even start."

"Want me to help?"

"Yes", Anna replied gratefully. Laura sat down her backpack and closed the door behind her. She went into Anna's closet and grabbed a pink T Shirt, a brown sweatshirt, some jeans, and a pair of sneakers.

"Put these on." Laura threw the clothes to Anna. Laura then found a backpack and filled it with some extra clothes, a hat, a warm blanket, a flashlight, and a lightweight sleeping bag. She then ran into the bathroom and came back with Anna's toothbrush, some toothpaste, and a small first aid kit, and put those into Anna's bag as well. When Anna was dressed, they grabbed their backpacks and went down stairs into the kitchen. There waited their mom, dad, Leo, and Sammy. Their mom stuffed a bag of food and money into the girls' packs and strapped some water bottles on them. Their parents then gave them all a big group hug, including Leo and Sammy, and told them all to be careful.

The four kids all waved goodbye as they walked outside into the chilly wind to start a journey that would change their lives forever.

**Chapter 6**

Laura, Anna, Leo, and Sammy trekked through the Evergreen woods in silence. The woods were densely populated with trees, so there wasn't much light except for the very little sunlight that tried squeezing through the gaps where the leaves didn't overlap. They had to watch where they stepped too, because there were no trails and the ground was scattered with rocks. Tree roots stuck out of the ground at odd angles, looking as if they were trying to grab you and drag you to the ground. Birds twittered in the trees and the squirrels didn't seem to be bothered by the darkness as they jumped and ran through the trees with ease. They all followed Sammy in a somewhat single file line deeper and deeper into the woods.

Laura broke the silence by questioning nervously, "You know how you guys said that the Flamingshadow was chasing you and it was literally nipping at your heels and that's why you came bursting into our house?"

"Yeah, what's your point?", Leo said exasperatedly.

"Where did it go and where is it now?"

Everyone's eyes widened as they just realized what Laura was trying to say. A twig snapped behind them and they all whirled around. Anna and Laura screamed ear piercing screams, and then sighed in relief. It was only a bunny. Leo fell to the ground, laughing so hard. He did this for at least 4 min. and then got up, wiping tears of laughter out of his eyes. Anna blushed and Laura's face turned as red as her hair.

"You two are pathetic.", Leo cried in disgust. "If you're always going to scream like little girls whenever you see a monster, you're going to get yourselves killed, because we're going to see a lot of them." He shook his head and laughed again, this time more to himself.

"Laura does have a point though.", Sammy spoke. "We don't know where the Flamingshadow went and we don't know where it is now."

"So, I guess it's just safe to assume that it's lurking in these woods", Anna said simply, but frightened.

"That was exactly what I was going to suggest.", Sammy said. He reached into his pack and digged around. Then, he pulled out two knives and slung his bag back over his shoulder. "Here's a knife. We brought two in case we ever did find you. They're specially made for you based off of your season and your personality.", he said as he handed a knife to Anna, and one to Laura.

"They're beautiful.", Laura whispered. Laura's knife was about 10½ inches long and the handle was engraved with elegant carvings of crab apples, wild turkeys, nuts, berries, squirrels, and warbler birds. Small red maple leaves, golden oak leaves, and beautiful orange chrysanthemums intertwined around the handle. Laura ran her finger across the handle back and forth, marveling at the handy carving. The designs looked so real, that it was almost unbelievable.

"Where did you get these? Who made these?", Anna asked in wonder. She too loved her knife and was wonder struck. The handle of her knife was from the blossoming American red bud tree. She knew because they had one in their backyard, back at their house. It was a gorgeous tree that blossomed with pink rosy flowers and had cute heart shaped leaves. She also knew because she had a feeling it was a red bud tree. "Must be part of my powers of Spring", she decided. The handle of the knife also had carvings of bluebirds, tulips, daisies, and little baby chicks and bunnies taking their first steps into the world. She smiled when she looked at the carvings.

"They were made by one of our fake dad's friends who has the power to build anything.", Sammy said. "Our dad told him to make them along, with our swords."

"Your swords?", Laura asked. "Can we see them?"

"Sure." Sammy pulled out his sword. The handle was encrusted with rubies and when you looked at it too long, it seemed to be engulfed in fire. On the blade it said Flame Spreader.

"Why does it say that on the blade?", Laura asked curiously.

"It's the name of the sword. One of my powers is fire and whenever you stab someone or something with this sword, they turn to ash."

"Cool!", Laura exclaimed

"Wait a minute. You have the power of water and fire?", Anna asked incredibly. "Those are like opposites."

"Yeah we thought that that was sort of weird too.", Sammy said as he rubbed the back of his neck, like he was embarrassed. "We think I have water because of all the swimming and all the beaches that people go to in the summer. I mean, water is kind of a summer thing. We always run through the sprinklers, swim at the local swimming pools, and dump water bottles over our heads to keep cool in the summer."

"Yeah, I know. I get the reason why you have water. Why do you have fire?"

"We guessed on that one. We think it's because of the sun and how it's really hot in the summer."

"I guess that makes sense, but it's still weird that you have water and fire, because they're complete opposites!"

"Can we see your sword?", Laura said to Leo, as she cut in. "Does your sword have powers too?!"

"Yeah, if I want it to.", he said as he pulled his sword out of a sheath hanging at his side. It looked a lot like Sammy's sword, except for a few exceptions. His sword was a little shorter and the handle was encrusted with glistening diamonds. The blade glowed with blue light and said Frostbite on it.

"What do you mean, "if you want it to"."

"I mean, if I speak the words "Congelationis, succensus excoquat", my sword will freeze anything, or anyone I stab. If I don't want to freeze someone with my sword, I just don't speak those words."

"How does the sword know to stop freezing people?"

"Oh! I forgot to tell you that. You just have to say "liquefáciet"

"Wow! Do our knives do anything?", Laura asked excitedly.

"No, they're just knives to set on the mantel to gaze at, and act as decoration."

"What? That's no fair! Can they be still used for fighting?"

"Of course they can! I was just kidding.", Leo joked. "They actually do have powers. You can store some of your powers into it, so if you're fighting and you get really weak, you'll have that back up power to use."

"Cool! I'm guessing that will be pretty useful. How do we store our power into them? because I want to do it right now just incase.", Laura said, as she searched for a button on her knife that would help her put her powers into it.

"You can't store power in it yet, because you don't have your powers developed yet, so in the meantime just use it as a knife."

They began walking again and they talked as they went.

"So, where is your dad's house?", Laura questioned. "Will it take us long to get there?"

"Yeah, it's going to take a pretty long time. He lives in Turtle Lake, Montana, which is a really small town and it'll take us about 19 - 20 days if we walk there nonstop.", Sammy answered. "That will never happen though, and I bet you guys will agree with me. I'm certainly not going to walk nonstop.

"I totally agree.", Leo said. "There's nothing good about doing that. If we would do that, our feet would hurt, we would be exhausted, we wouldn't be able to sleep, our feet would hurt some more, and our backs would hurt. The only good thing about that plan is that it would be a lot faster if we just walked regular pace and took breaks and slept, and the fact that the trip would probably kill us before Deathvol even got his hands on us."

"So, how are we going to get there?", Anna asked.

"I was thinking that we would rent a car and drive there.", Sammy said.

"So, what are we doing walking through these woods?"

"When we were getting chased by the Flaming Shadow, I saw a clearing somewhere deep in these woods that would be a great place to practice and train. I thought we could try to get your powers working a little bit before we go."

In about 20 more minutes they had made it to the clearing that Sammy had talked about.

"Leo and I are going to work with you first, Laura, because your the most powerful right now and Deathvol will be hunting you down the most."

"What?!", Laura choked. "What do you mean?", she asked bewildered.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you didn't I?", Sammy mumbled. "I assumed that you kind of knew. I don't really want to sound mean, but what season is it right now?

"Fall."

"And who here has the power of Fall?"

"Me."

"So, do you get it?"

"Yeah, but you should have told me this earlier. Wouldn't you have wanted to know that a mass murderer was after you?!"

"I guess you have a point. Anyways, let's get back to work. First, I want you to start with something simple like making a stack of leaves float in the air. Relax your mind, clear it of anything else you're thinking, concentrate, and imagine the leaves float weightlessly off the ground like they're nothing.", Sammy coached.

"Ok, I can do this.", Laura whispered to herself as she closed her eyes and concentrated. She tried to clear her mind, but it was technically useless because of everything that was going on in her life. All the questions she still had, kept popping up in her mind. She tried to swipe the questions away and forget about them, but they just stayed floating in her mind, unanswered. She instead tried to concentrate on the sounds around her, like the chirping songbirds, and the rustling leaves. She breathed softly in and out. Then, she pictured the stack of leaves floating just slightly above her head. She opened her eyes and saw that it had worked! The leaves were floating just above her head! She smiled up at the leaves. It kind of looked like a leafy halo. Everyone cheered.

"Great Job!", Sammy cried. "Now try throwing the leaves up into the air."

Laura concentrated again and imagined the leaves being thrown up into the air and to her great surprise it worked, this time even faster. The leaves flew up into the air as if an invisible person had tossed them, and then they fluttered down in a big colorful shower.

"Wow! This is going faster than I thought. You're a fast learner.", Sammy grinned. "Now try using the leaves like a rope to wrap someone up and entangle them."

"And I can entangle anyone of you?", she said with a sly grin.

"Sure, just don't kill anyone.", Sammy chuckled. Leo and Anna's eyes widened and hoped that they wouldn't be chosen to be entangled. What if something went wrong? Both tried to think of things that they did or said to ever make Laura mad.

Laura spoke to the leaves with her mind and ordered all the leaves around her to rise and they did. She playfully tapped her finger on her chin, pretending to think of who she would throw the leaves at. Suddenly, without warning, all the leaves in the area speeded supersonically straight at Leo. Leo shrieked and started running as if his life depended on it, but the leaves just followed him. They dove at him and for a couple minutes, all you could see was a gigantic mass of leaves. Then the leaves left and fell to the ground, revealing Leo tightly tied up in a leafy twig tangled vines. The whole time Laura had been laughing hysterically. She knelt down besides Leo.

"That was AWESOME! You should have seen your face! It was priceless! And you scream like a high pitched girl", she snickered.

"I guess I deserved that.", Leo laughed.

Sammy and Anna ran over. "That was the greatest thing I've ever seen! Awesome job!", Anna smiled. She then turned to Leo and yelled in his face, "You just got beat by a girl!" She then turned back Laura, grinned again and the two girls did their secret celebratory handshake/fist pump.

"That was incredibly impressive.", Sammy yelled as he slapped Laura's back to congratulate her. "You totally kicked my brother's butt! Good for you." Laura smiled.

"Ummm . . . A little help please!", Leo groaned.

"Oh, sorry.", Laura cried. She snapped her fingers and the vines untied themselves, and then melted into the ground. She held out her hand and helped him up.

Leo mischievously smiled and then said, "That was a nice one, but I'll get you back!"


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 1**

"What are you doing?", Anna asked, as she stepped outside and closed the house door behind her. Laura was laying in the grass of the backyard, and looking up at the puffy clouds in the sky. Colorful leaves danced around her head and raced in the wind.

"I don't know.", Laura replied. "I just feel like being outside today and besides it's a beautiful day."

Laura was right about that, Anna thought. It was a crisp autumn afternoon and the sun was shining high in the sky. It's warm rays of beaming sunlight warmed Anna up, as she sat down and laid herself down beside her sister.

"I just love this time of year.", sighed Laura. "It makes me happier and calmer. I don't know why. It just does! Do you ever have that kind of feeling?"

"Sort of. I don't really have that kind of feeling now, but I do sort of have it during the spring sometimes.", replied Anna.

"Don't you ever think that that feeling means something? I mean, something important?", Laura asked hopefully.

"I don't know. I can't really say I have.", Anna says. "Come on. Let's go back inside. Mom wants us to do our chores before dinner."

"Okay.", Laura sighed, as she got up and followed her sister inside.

Laura and Anna live in a small house that sits at the end of Pine Lane near the Evergreen woods. It is a rather peaceful place to settle down and live. The street has a nice neighborhood and isn't at all that busy. The girls' family hate the busy city, so Pine Lane is perfect.

The girls' parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frable, are kind and the best possible parents a kid could ever ask for. They have all the traits parents should have. They are kind, gentle, protective of their beloved children, helpful, and above all, loving. They would do anything to protect and help Laura and Anna.

Like their parents, Laura and Anna are awesome. Laura has long, curly, pretty, red hair and warm, bright, amber eyes. She is curious, optimistic, graceful and enjoys an adventure. She is 13 years old and is younger than her sister. Anna is quite different than Laura. Anna has long, straight, dark, chocolate, brown hair and dazzling, light, green eyes. She is energetic, beautiful, sweet, and loves to run. She is 15 years old and is the oldest of the two sisters.

**Chapter 2**

"Did we lose it!?", Leo asked hopefully, as he ran for his life through the woods, while dodging trees and jumping over tree roots. His pack bounced on his back, making it hard to run.

"No! Not yet!", Sammy yelled back, as he too, ran faster than he'd ever ran before.

"What is that thing?", Leo cried.

"I think it's a Flamingshadow! They're Deathvol's followers and he must of sent one to kidnap us and bring us to his castle!

"Castle? That thing is not a castle! It's more like a dump that a dragon used for a bathroom!", Leo yelled back in disgust. He glanced up. The monster was hideous. It looked half phoenix and half dog; a dog Leo would hate to have as a pet. It's teeth looked like they were too big for it's mouth and were yellowed and stained with blood from it's last victim. It had dark red wings of a phoenix protruding from it's back and it's body was covered with black fur, the color of ash. Leo couldn't believe that the regular mortals couldn't see it.

"Leo! Stop daydreaming back there! A man eating beast is chasing us! Get a move on! Oh, and watch where you step. There's tree roots sticking out of the ground everywhere." Leo stopped looking up at the beast, tripped on a root, and smacked his face into a pine tree. Leo groaned and touched his hand to his head. Blood trickled down the side of his face. The Flamingshadow took the advantage and tucked it's feathery wings into it's body and went into a speedy dive towards Leo.

"I will get you Leo and this time you won't get away!", the mutt rasped. "I will take you to my master, and when he is finished with you, you will become my chew toy!"

"Well, that's very appealing and I would love to become your chew toy, but I'm kind of busy running away from you and that creepy dude, Deathvol.", Leo muttered as he staggered up from the ground, and rubbed his aching head.

"YOU WILL DIE LEO!", the monster said.

"Leo, look out! Flamingshadows can breath fire!", Sammy yelled, as he ran to his brother to help. Balls of flame rained down from above, catching the trees on fire. "Leo! Get behind me!", Sammy yelled even louder. Sammy concentrated on his powers and thought of flowing rivers, calm oceans, trickling streams, and splashing ponds. He channeled his powers into those thoughts and water sprang from his palm, gallons and gallons of water. He aimed the water at the raining flames and the fire extinguished into steaming mist. The monster was on top of them now, and the only thing stopping it was the sputtering flow of water. Sammy couldn't keep this up for long. Summoning this much water was draining his strength. Soon, the mutt would strike down, gather them in it's claws, and soar off towards Deathvol, who would only want to kill them. "Leo! Do you see that house on the edge of the woods? Go to it, knock on the door, and get inside no matter who comes to the door! You hear me!"

"What about you?", Leo asked.

"I'll be fine! Just go!", Sammy yelled.

"Why would I do that! I never go in the woods. That's what toilets are for. Duh!", Leo said.

"Uhhhhhhhh! Leo! You have a sick mind! That's gross man, really gross! You know what I meant! Leave!", Sammy said. Leo laughed.

"I'm not leaving without you! I need you!", Leo cried in a sarcastic voice. "What if there's strangers in that house."

"Fine! Do you have a better plan?!", Sammy cried in frustration. Why was Leo acting so calm and joking about this. Didn't he know they were in a life or death situation?

"Just watch the Leo Master!", Leo said dramatically. He walked past Sammy. "Could you turn that little hose coming out of your hand off?! It would be much appreciated." Sammy forced the water to come to a stop. "Thanks." He walked straight up to the Flamingshadow and yelled "FREEZE RAY!" A blast of chilly ice shot out of the palm of his hand and froze the monster in a suspended block of ice. "And that's how it's done!", Leo cried with a bow.

"Show off.", Sammy said. "Let's go to that house." They trudged through the woods and to the house. It was quite small, but it looked pretty cozy. Then they heard an ear piercing BARK! behind them. Both Sammy and Leo whirled around. The mutt had melted most of the ice away and it's paw was the only thing still encased in ice.

"How did it get out of the ice so quickly!?", Leo asked in amazement. "That was one of my best ice block encasings!"

"It doesn't matter how it got out! Just RUN!" Sammy and Leo ran to the house as fast as they could. Then they heard another BARK! This time it sounded only about a couple feet away. The monster must have broke free of that last piece of ice. They got to the doorsteps of the house. Leo rang the doorbell like a madman.

"OPEN UP! OPEN UP!", he screeched. The door opened. A girl about 13 years old had answered.

"What do you-", she began to say, but she couldn't finish, because the boys rushed forward, knocked her over, and slammed the door shut behind them.

**Chapter 3**

"What do you think you're doing?!", the 13 year old girl screamed at the boys as she got up.

"Something!", Leo said. "And it's none of your beeswax." They were standing in a room that was probably the living room. The walls were painted a pearly white and the carpet was shaggy and the color of sand. A big window with silky, creme colored curtains covered up most of the space on the wall, in front of the room. A light, blue sofa sat in front of the window, and a bookshelf full of movies and books sat on the left side of the sofa. On the opposite wall of the window, laid a plush chair that was the same shade of blue as the sofa. Between the chair and the sofa, was a white coffee table, piled high with more books. Another white table, sat next to the bookshelf with a T.V rested comfortably on top.

"MOM! DAD! ANNA! COME QUICK! THERE'S SOME RUDE STRANGERS IN OUR HOUSE!", the girl yelled. A man and a woman that must have been the girl's parents, came running in from the kitchen. Then two seconds later, a girl about Sammy's age bounded down from upstairs. She must be Anna.

"What's going on?", Anna asked. "And why is his head bleeding?!" Anna pointed at Leo.

"I don't know. The doorbell rang like a thousand times, so I went and answered the door, and these two boys were at the door, but before I could ask them what they wanted, they scrambled in, knocking me down in the process, and slammed the door shut.", the girl replied angrily.

"Do you think we should call the police on them?", the mom said.

"Yes!", the girl said excitedly with a mischievous grin.

"No!", Leo, Sammy, and Anna said together at the same time. Leo and Sammy looked at Anna in disbelief.

"I think we should at least give them a chance to state their story before we decide to hand them over to the police.", explained Anna.

"No, let's call the police and they can ask them what their story is in court. They are charged of technically breaking into our house and knocking over a sweet, little, innocent child!", said the girl.

"What's your name?", Leo asked the girl through gritted teeth. "Because I'm about to ship you off to South Africa!"

"Leo, calm down!", Sammy whispered. "You're not making this any better."

"Well, that's actually very nice of you because I've always had a dream to go to South Africa.", the girl said to Leo with sarcasm and a fake smile. "And my name is Laura by the way."

Leo balled his fists up and started forward, but Sammy held him back. "Ohhhhhhhh! When I get my hands on you! . . . . . . . "

"You'll do what?!", Laura spit back, while placing her hands on her hips.

"I'll . . . I'll . . . I'll freeze you in your tracks! Literally.", he answered. Laura didn't know what to say to that. She was puzzled at what he said and what he meant when he said he could literally freeze her in her tracks. She fell silent. Laura then glanced over at her parents. The pair of them seemed to be having a pretty aggressive discussion. They were whispering extremely fast while occasionally taking quick looks at the two boys. Laura listened intently.

"Honey, I know you don't want it to be true, but it's true. It's time . . .", she heard her dad whisper to her mom.

"What did that mean?", Laura thought. "What is it time for? Did this have anything to do with her? Why did her parents look so scared and nervous? Did this have anything to do with the boys? What was going on?" Laura had millions of questions and it was all mind boggling.

Her parents then suddenly looked up and immediately became quiet, when they noticed that everyone in the room was staring at them. Laura's mom cleared her throat nervously.

"How about you girls sit down with these boys for a second, and like Anna said, let them tell you their story. I'll get the boy a bandage for his head.", the girls' mom said as she and her husband rushed out of the room.

Laura and Anna plopped down on the living room couch by the window and Sammy and Leo reluctantly followed, and sat on the opposite sofa. There was a pause of awkward silence.

"Soooooo, what's your story?", Anna asked patiently.

"Oh, yeah, right, our story.", Sammy mumbled. "Ummmm . . . . . . . Well, to start with, we are photographers and we were in Evergreen woods taking pictures of the sky, the trees, the birds and stuff like that. Leo and I were just taking a picture of a woodpecker, when we saw a black bear and it's cubs. The mama black bear must have been sick or something, because when it saw us, it did not walk away like most bears do. Instead, it growled at us and then charged. Obviously we ran for our lives and . . . . .

"Running from a crazy bear is a really bad idea. You're suppose to play dead.", Anna cut in.

"Ok then miss know it all! Can you let my brother talk?", Leo said.

"It's fine Leo. ", Sammy said. "Anyways, we ran for our lives, and then we quickly climbed up some trees and then. . . . . . . . . ."

"Don't you know that black bears can climb trees?!", Anna cut in again.

"Yes, I know, but we were under pressure!", Sammy said defensively. "Now let me continue. We quickly climbed up some trees and the bear followed us up mere seconds later. Then . . . . ."

"An ugly monster flew from the sky and attacked us!", Leo interrupted. Sammy glared at Leo.

"Ha! Ha! Ha! Very funny Leo. He's just joking. Leo is always joking around.", Sammy said nervously with a half hearted laugh. "Ahh, where was I?"

"The bear was climbing up the tree, and then an ugly monster attacked you.", Laura offered.

"No! No! No! A monster never attacked us!", Sammy said quickly while shaking his head.

"Uhh, Sammy?", Leo asked slowly while continually poking Sammy in the arm.

"Don't interrupt.", Sammy said as he swatted Leo's hand away. "As I was saying . . . . ."

"Sammy!" Leo yelled, this time poking Sammy even harder.

"What is your problem!?", Sammy asked.

Leo leaned forward. "Look at what they're wearing around their necks.", he whispered to Sammy. Sammy looked up at the girls. They were both wearing matching necklaces, strung with a glass pendant. Both of the pendants looked oddly familiar. They had a single flower with leaf shaped petals painted on them. The only difference between the two pendants was the color of the flowers. Anna's flower was pink and Laura's flower was orange. Then he realized why they looked so familiar. He had one that looked exactly like theirs, except the flower on his pendant was green. Leo had one too, except the flower on his was blue. His eyes widened.

"Do you know what this means?", Leo whispered.

"Yes. It means that we finally found fall and spring!", Sammy whispered excitedly.

"Helloooo! We're still here! Are you done with your gossiping girls whispering?", Laura said impatiently. "Finish the story already!"

"We're not girls.", Leo grumbled. "And our story was a lie."

"That's another reason why we should give you up to the cops.", Laura said.

"I really don't want these girls to be the ones.", Leo whispered to Sammy. "I was hoping for maybe some cute girls." Sammy rolled his eyes.

"Why did you lie to us?, Anna asked. "I'm going to have to agree with my sister about you guys being turned into the police. Lying to us is not really helping your reputation right now. Can you tell us the real story?"

"Yes, actually I was just about to do that very thing, but no matter how crazy this story is, you have to promise that you will believe us.", Sammy said sternly.

"I will.", replied Anna.

"Fine.", replied Laura with a sigh. "As long as it's a good story."

"Oh, it's very good. Maybe even mind blowing. You'll see.", Leo said.

**Chapter 4**

"There's a legend that the world is separated into two groups, mortals and super beings.", Sammy began. "There's a legend that long ago, these super beings were being ruled by an evil ruler who had powers stronger than anyone's. They say he killed anyone that got on his bad side and stood in his path. He went by the name, Deathvol. There was a war. Super-beings against Deathvol. Billions of people against one."

"Who won?", Laura asked

"Some people say that the super-beings won and Deathvol was defeated. Some say that he went into hiding and is still alive to this very day.", Sammy explained. "Now this is where the story gets kind of interesting. Do you know who Mother Nature is?"

"Yes.", the girls said in unison.

"Well, people say that Mother Nature was the one who defeated Deathvol.", Sammy explained. "Do you want to know something else about Mother Nature that's interesting? Well, a couple of months after she defeated Deathvol she had a daughter. Then, about 2 years after that, she had another daughter. No one knows if any of this is true, but if it is true, those two girls who were born from Mother Nature are said to have powers. The child that was born first is said to have the powers of Spring. She is said to have brown hair the color of the fresh clean dirt of a garden. Her eyes are said to be as bright and warm as the awakening sun and light green like the newly sprouted plants in early Spring. She is energetic and loves to run like the prancing deer, the hopping bunnies, and the skittering chipmunks. She is also said to be beautiful and sweet like the flowers that bloom in the sun. The child that was born second is said to have the powers of Fall. She is said to have hair as red as the colorful tree tops in autumn and have amber colored eyes. She is said to be as graceful as the falling leaves, but fierce like the frigid winds of October. She loves adventure and is sly, sneaky, and curious like the leaves that creep off their branches and race away in the wind.", Sammy finally finished.

Everything in the room fell silent. Leo stared at the girls watching to see how they would react to Sammy's story.

"Soooooooo, what are you trying to say to us?", Laura asked slowly.

"Oh my gosh! Are you that dumb! Did you go to school at all?!", Leo chuckled in disbelief.

"Laura, they're trying to say that we are the two girls in the story that were born from Mother Nature.", Anna choked.

Laura burst out laughing uncontrollably. "That's ridiculous!", she said between giggles. "You're joking right?" She stopped laughing and looked at everyone else.

"Anna's right, ugly duck. Your sister obviously went to school.", Leo smirked.

"Did you just call me ugly duck?!", Laura demanded.

"Leo, knock it off!", Sammy said. "The girls probably have questions and you're not making it very easy for them. They just found out that their real mom is Mother Nature and that they have magical powers. It's probably a lot for them to take in."

"Thank you!", Anna and Lara said in unison.

"Wait a minute! That means I was right! Remember how I thought that the feelings I have during Fall mean something, Anna?

"Oh, yeah, I remember! Wow, that's weird how you knew that."

"That is kind of weird", Sammy says. "Do you girls have any questions about all of this?"

"Oh, yes! I have a lot of questions and I bet Laura does too. She's really curious and her mind is probably exploding right now. Ok, First of all, how do you know all this information? Do you guys have any powers? How do you guys tie into this?"

"Good questions. Ummmmmmmmmmm . . . . . . . We don't exactly know the answers to those questions," Sammy confessed. "But I can tell you this. I have the power of Summer and Leo has Winter powers. We don't exactly know how we tie in with you. Mother Nature isn't our mom, so we don't know how we got our powers. Our fake parents aren't mortals like yours are. Our fake parents are super-beings, so throughout our life our fake parents trained us to use our powers. They told us stories of the war and about the history of super-beings."

"What kind of powers do super-beings have? Do they have powers of the seasons like us?", Laura asked curiously.

"No, the four of us are special.", Sammy answered. "Super-beings usually have powers like flying, telekinesis, super strength, superhuman intelligence, and other stuff like that. When a super-being is born you can't tell what kind of power they have right away. When super-beings grow up, signs gradually show up, like our fake dad for example, he has super-speed. His first sign was when he was 8 years old. He was running around on the playground at school and his friends and him were playing tag. He was it. He was chasing after one of his friends when he all of a sudden sped up uncontrollably. He was going 60 mph and he couldn't control it. He slammed right into the kid that he was trying to tag. They both ended up getting huge bloody noses and the kid that our dad ran over, got a major concussion and some broken bones."

"Yikes!", Laura exclaimed. "Do all powers have signs like that?"

"No.", Sammy answered. "It all depends on what kind of power you have. Our fake dad had a couple of little signs that weren't that bad, but most of his signs were really bad. His worst one happened when he was 14 years old. He was playing in a football game and he had the ball. He was running towards the touchdown zone, when he started running 229,951 mph. He was a blur and no one could see him because he was going so fast. He couldn't stop! His legs finally stopped moving, which was a great relief for him, but the problem was that he didn't know where he was. He finally found out that he was in Winchester, United Kingdom (Great Britain). Luckily he had his phone and he called his parents. His parents told him that it was going to take them about 20 hours to get over there so he would have to stay the night somewhere. So he went door to door asking people if he could stay the night because he didn't have any other ideas of what to do. He didn't have any money and he was in a place that he had never been to. A nice old woman finally took him in. Then at about 9:00 in the morning (United Kingdom time) his parents called him asking where he was and he told them the address of where he was staying. They picked him up about 20 minutes later and he was headed back home on a plane with his parents a couple minutes after that.

"Wow, that must have been a big scare for his parents.", Anna said.

"Yeah, it was.", Sammy agreed. "But it was a big scare for him as well."

"How does all this super-beings thing work exactly?", Laura asked slowly. "I mean, how are they hiding from the mortals? Do they just act like regular mortals? How is a super-being born? Can a super-being marry a mortal? Is this like Harry Potter, where there are pure bloods, muggles, squibs, and half bloods? "

"Ok, slow down missy!", Leo cut in. "What is going on inside that little brain of yours? Do you always have these many questions?"

Laura glared at Leo. "I wasn't talking to you." She turned back to look at Sammy. "Can you please answer my dying questions quickly, before Mr. Leo Frost over here interrupts again?"

"Sure thing. I'll try my best to answer your questions. What do you want to know first?", Sammy asked.

"Just tell me the whole history of how super-beings started and stuff.", Laura simply answered. "I just want to know how things work in the life of a super-being."

"Ok, well, super-beings have been living under the noses of the mortals for ages now. We just act like all the other mortals in the world. We do this for two reasons. One, because if the mortals knew about us, they might make us all into slaves, so that we can do their dirty work with our powers. Two, you know how I said that some people say that Deathvol went into hiding after the war? Well, we act like the mortals to also hide from Deathvol in case he comes back. Super-beings live all over the world. In order to be a super-being both of your parents have to be super-beings. There has never been a born super-being who has had a mortal for a parent, but it could be possible. You could marry a mortal, but that is very risky because you could easily expose our whole entire species of people. You also wouldn't be able to continue generations of super-beings because like I said before, no super-being has ever been born if they had a mortal parent.

"That's kind of sad.", Anna said.

"And why is that? Do you have any dreamy boyfriends?", Leo asked.

"Maybe. It's really none of your concern. Is it?" Anna blushed.

"I didn't know you liked someone! Why didn't you tell me!? Who is it?", Laura asked excitedly.

"I never said I had a boyfriend or liked someone", Anna replied hotly. "Please, would you all just drop it!"

"Wait a minute! Why did you guys burst into our house in the first place? You guys aren't really photographers. Are you?", Laura asked the boys.

"Of course we're not photographers! If we were I would not be very good at it. I would probably wake up the whole forest when trying to take a picture of an animal. I'm also very active. I can't really sit in one place for a long time. I get fidgety.", Leo said. "And besides we already told you that we lied about that."

"Then what's the real reason why you came here?", Laura asked again. Leo launched into the whole story about how they got chased by a Flamingshadow and why his head was bleeding. When he finally finished Laura asked, "Why was the Flamingshadow chasing you in the first place?"

"We were looking for you girls. Our fake dad had told us the tale of Mother Nature and the two girls who had the power of Spring and Fall. He said we had to find you once we were trained. He said that once we found you that we would have to bring you to him and help him train you. Once you were ready, we would have to journey to Deathvol's dump of a castle and defeat him."

"What? I thought Deathvol was dead or in hiding? Why do we have to kill him?"

"He's not dead and he isn't in hiding anymore. He's becoming more powerful by the second. We don't know why he got so powerful all of a sudden or why he came out of hiding, but he's been sending his followers after us ever since he found out we were looking for you."

"Why?"

"Because he knows that if we find you, we will be able to stop him once and for all. When all four of us are together we are very powerful."

"Makes sense.", Laura replied.

**Chapter 5**

Laura slouched on the couch in silence and gazed around the room, not knowing what to say. Then, she abruptly sat up and suddenly said, "I just noticed you're still bleeding! Are you ok?!"

Leo looked up. It looked like Laura had disturbed some deep thoughts that were whirling in his mind. "You just noticed that?", he asked incredibly. "I've been sitting here for at least a half an hour with blood trickling down the side of my face, and you haven't noticed?"

"Sorry. I wonder why mom hasn't brought the bandages yet."

Just on cue, Mrs. Frable shuffled in nervously along with her husband. She cleaned Leo's wound with a washcloth and bandaged it up gently.

"What took you so long? I was bleeding to death.", Leo said sarcastically.

She laughed. "Sorry, I couldn't find the bandages. There's just so much on my mind, and I guess I was just distracted with my thoughts that I wasn't looking for them hard enough."

"Mom. Dad. You know what we were talking about. Don't you.", Anna quietly spoke. "You knew that Mother Nature was our real mother. You knew that we had powers of the seasons. I can tell you knew. Why didn't you ever tell us?"

Their mom sighed. "I'm sorry. Your dad and I just wanted to protect you and we really didn't know how to tell you." She sat down on the couch beside the girls. "I didn't really want you to know anyways, because I didn't want you to go away. I wanted you to stay with me. I love you and I didn't want to lose you." She grabbed the two girls and they shared a group hug. "I'm sorry", she whispered, tears streaming down her face.

Tears streamed down Laura's face too. She was going to miss her mom. She then realized that she was still calling her fake mom, "mom". Should she stop calling her, "mom". She couldn't bare to think of doing that.

"You'll always be my mom.", Laura said between sobs. "I don't care if you're my fake mom or not! You'll always be my mom."

"And the both of you, will always be my daughter." She kissed Laura and Anna lightly on the head and hugged them one last time. She then said, as she walked into the kitchen, wiping her eyes, "You better go get ready and pack for your journey. I'll go pack you some food for the road."

Laura then said, turning to her dad, "You'll always be our dad too! I love you and you have been the best dad ever, and always will be. I'll miss you." Laura meant it. She would miss the times when her and her dad would play catch in the yard. She would miss the way her dad was so good with computers. She would miss the times her dad would help her with her homework, even when the work took until 10:00 pm to do, sometimes even 12:00 am when she had loads of homework in every subject.

"Ah . . . Come here sweetie!", he said gently while pulling her into a hug. "You sound as if this is our last time seeing each other."

"This might as well be because we're probably going to die out there anyways.", Anna spoke for the first time in a while.

"Don't say that! You're not going to die. I know you girls, and you are both strong, talented, and beautiful. I know you will stop at nothing to finish the job that's at hand. If you need any help, I'm here for you, so just give me a call. I love you", he let go of Laura and patted her on the head, then quickly hugged Anna, then went into the kitchen to help their mom.

Anna sat in the middle of her room wondering what exactly to bring. She had never been on any kind of journey. She wasn't really a curious person in the first place, so she never felt the need to go on adventures. She never really wanted to end up in any trouble either, that was Laura's job. Laura loved to go hiking in the woods and stray off the path and go looking for trouble and find adventure.

"Hey, are you ready?", Laura asked excitedly. She stood in the doorway, waiting impatiently with a backpack slung over her shoulder, her red curls tied back into a ponytail and her favorite baseball cap sat snug on her head. She wore a black sweatshirt, jeans, and sneakers.

"I didn't even start."

"Want me to help?"

"Yes", Anna replied gratefully. Laura sat down her backpack and closed the door behind her. She went into Anna's closet and grabbed a pink T Shirt, a brown sweatshirt, some jeans, and a pair of sneakers.

"Put these on." Laura threw the clothes to Anna. Laura then found a backpack and filled it with some extra clothes, a hat, a warm blanket, a flashlight, and a lightweight sleeping bag. She then ran into the bathroom and came back with Anna's toothbrush, some toothpaste, and a small first aid kit, and put those into Anna's bag as well. When Anna was dressed, they grabbed their backpacks and went down stairs into the kitchen. There waited their mom, dad, Leo, and Sammy. Their mom stuffed a bag of food and money into the girls' packs and strapped some water bottles on them. Their parents then gave them all a big group hug, including Leo and Sammy, and told them all to be careful.

The four kids all waved goodbye as they walked outside into the chilly wind to start a journey that would change their lives forever.

**Chapter 6**

Laura, Anna, Leo, and Sammy trekked through the Evergreen woods in silence. The woods were densely populated with trees, so there wasn't much light except for the very little sunlight that tried squeezing through the gaps where the leaves didn't overlap. They had to watch where they stepped too, because there were no trails and the ground was scattered with rocks. Tree roots stuck out of the ground at odd angles, looking as if they were trying to grab you and drag you to the ground. Birds twittered in the trees and the squirrels didn't seem to be bothered by the darkness as they jumped and ran through the trees with ease. They all followed Sammy in a somewhat single file line deeper and deeper into the woods.

Laura broke the silence by questioning nervously, "You know how you guys said that the Flamingshadow was chasing you and it was literally nipping at your heels and that's why you came bursting into our house?"

"Yeah, what's your point?", Leo said exasperatedly.

"Where did it go and where is it now?"

Everyone's eyes widened as they just realized what Laura was trying to say. A twig snapped behind them and they all whirled around. Anna and Laura screamed ear piercing screams, and then sighed in relief. It was only a bunny. Leo fell to the ground, laughing so hard. He did this for at least 4 min. and then got up, wiping tears of laughter out of his eyes. Anna blushed and Laura's face turned as red as her hair.

"You two are pathetic.", Leo cried in disgust. "If you're always going to scream like little girls whenever you see a monster, you're going to get yourselves killed, because we're going to see a lot of them." He shook his head and laughed again, this time more to himself.

"Laura does have a point though.", Sammy spoke. "We don't know where the Flamingshadow went and we don't know where it is now."

"So, I guess it's just safe to assume that it's lurking in these woods", Anna said simply, but frightened.

"That was exactly what I was going to suggest.", Sammy said. He reached into his pack and digged around. Then, he pulled out two knives and slung his bag back over his shoulder. "Here's a knife. We brought two in case we ever did find you. They're specially made for you based off of your season and your personality.", he said as he handed a knife to Anna, and one to Laura.

"They're beautiful.", Laura whispered. Laura's knife was about 10½ inches long and the handle was engraved with elegant carvings of crab apples, wild turkeys, nuts, berries, squirrels, and warbler birds. Small red maple leaves, golden oak leaves, and beautiful orange chrysanthemums intertwined around the handle. Laura ran her finger across the handle back and forth, marveling at the handy carving. The designs looked so real, that it was almost unbelievable.

"Where did you get these? Who made these?", Anna asked in wonder. She too loved her knife and was wonder struck. The handle of her knife was from the blossoming American red bud tree. She knew because they had one in their backyard, back at their house. It was a gorgeous tree that blossomed with pink rosy flowers and had cute heart shaped leaves. She also knew because she had a feeling it was a red bud tree. "Must be part of my powers of Spring", she decided. The handle of the knife also had carvings of bluebirds, tulips, daisies, and little baby chicks and bunnies taking their first steps into the world. She smiled when she looked at the carvings.

"They were made by one of our fake dad's friends who has the power to build anything.", Sammy said. "Our dad told him to make them along, with our swords."

"Your swords?", Laura asked. "Can we see them?"

"Sure." Sammy pulled out his sword. The handle was encrusted with rubies and when you looked at it too long, it seemed to be engulfed in fire. On the blade it said Flame Spreader.

"Why does it say that on the blade?", Laura asked curiously.

"It's the name of the sword. One of my powers is fire and whenever you stab someone or something with this sword, they turn to ash."

"Cool!", Laura exclaimed

"Wait a minute. You have the power of water and fire?", Anna asked incredibly. "Those are like opposites."

"Yeah we thought that that was sort of weird too.", Sammy said as he rubbed the back of his neck, like he was embarrassed. "We think I have water because of all the swimming and all the beaches that people go to in the summer. I mean, water is kind of a summer thing. We always run through the sprinklers, swim at the local swimming pools, and dump water bottles over our heads to keep cool in the summer."

"Yeah, I know. I get the reason why you have water. Why do you have fire?"

"We guessed on that one. We think it's because of the sun and how it's really hot in the summer."

"I guess that makes sense, but it's still weird that you have water and fire, because they're complete opposites!"

"Can we see your sword?", Laura said to Leo, as she cut in. "Does your sword have powers too?!"

"Yeah, if I want it to.", he said as he pulled his sword out of a sheath hanging at his side. It looked a lot like Sammy's sword, except for a few exceptions. His sword was a little shorter and the handle was encrusted with glistening diamonds. The blade glowed with blue light and said Frostbite on it.

"What do you mean, "if you want it to"."

"I mean, if I speak the words "Congelationis, succensus excoquat", my sword will freeze anything, or anyone I stab. If I don't want to freeze someone with my sword, I just don't speak those words."

"How does the sword know to stop freezing people?"

"Oh! I forgot to tell you that. You just have to say "liquefáciet"

"Wow! Do our knives do anything?", Laura asked excitedly.

"No, they're just knives to set on the mantel to gaze at, and act as decoration."

"What? That's no fair! Can they be still used for fighting?"

"Of course they can! I was just kidding.", Leo joked. "They actually do have powers. You can store some of your powers into it, so if you're fighting and you get really weak, you'll have that back up power to use."

"Cool! I'm guessing that will be pretty useful. How do we store our power into them? because I want to do it right now just incase.", Laura said, as she searched for a button on her knife that would help her put her powers into it.

"You can't store power in it yet, because you don't have your powers developed yet, so in the meantime just use it as a knife."

They began walking again and they talked as they went.

"So, where is your dad's house?", Laura questioned. "Will it take us long to get there?"

"Yeah, it's going to take a pretty long time. He lives in Turtle Lake, Montana, which is a really small town and it'll take us about 19 - 20 days if we walk there nonstop.", Sammy answered. "That will never happen though, and I bet you guys will agree with me. I'm certainly not going to walk nonstop.

"I totally agree.", Leo said. "There's nothing good about doing that. If we would do that, our feet would hurt, we would be exhausted, we wouldn't be able to sleep, our feet would hurt some more, and our backs would hurt. The only good thing about that plan is that it would be a lot faster if we just walked regular pace and took breaks and slept, and the fact that the trip would probably kill us before Deathvol even got his hands on us."

"So, how are we going to get there?", Anna asked.

"I was thinking that we would rent a car and drive there.", Sammy said.

"So, what are we doing walking through these woods?"

"When we were getting chased by the Flaming Shadow, I saw a clearing somewhere deep in these woods that would be a great place to practice and train. I thought we could try to get your powers working a little bit before we go."

In about 20 more minutes they had made it to the clearing that Sammy had talked about.

"Leo and I are going to work with you first, Laura, because your the most powerful right now and Deathvol will be hunting you down the most."

"What?!", Laura choked. "What do you mean?", she asked bewildered.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you didn't I?", Sammy mumbled. "I assumed that you kind of knew. I don't really want to sound mean, but what season is it right now?

"Fall."

"And who here has the power of Fall?"

"Me."

"So, do you get it?"

"Yeah, but you should have told me this earlier. Wouldn't you have wanted to know that a mass murderer was after you?!"

"I guess you have a point. Anyways, let's get back to work. First, I want you to start with something simple like making a stack of leaves float in the air. Relax your mind, clear it of anything else you're thinking, concentrate, and imagine the leaves float weightlessly off the ground like they're nothing.", Sammy coached.

"Ok, I can do this.", Laura whispered to herself as she closed her eyes and concentrated. She tried to clear her mind, but it was technically useless because of everything that was going on in her life. All the questions she still had, kept popping up in her mind. She tried to swipe the questions away and forget about them, but they just stayed floating in her mind, unanswered. She instead tried to concentrate on the sounds around her, like the chirping songbirds, and the rustling leaves. She breathed softly in and out. Then, she pictured the stack of leaves floating just slightly above her head. She opened her eyes and saw that it had worked! The leaves were floating just above her head! She smiled up at the leaves. It kind of looked like a leafy halo. Everyone cheered.

"Great Job!", Sammy cried. "Now try throwing the leaves up into the air."

Laura concentrated again and imagined the leaves being thrown up into the air and to her great surprise it worked, this time even faster. The leaves flew up into the air as if an invisible person had tossed them, and then they fluttered down in a big colorful shower.

"Wow! This is going faster than I thought. You're a fast learner.", Sammy grinned. "Now try using the leaves like a rope to wrap someone up and entangle them."

"And I can entangle anyone of you?", she said with a sly grin.

"Sure, just don't kill anyone.", Sammy chuckled. Leo and Anna's eyes widened and hoped that they wouldn't be chosen to be entangled. What if something went wrong? Both tried to think of things that they did or said to ever make Laura mad.

Laura spoke to the leaves with her mind and ordered all the leaves around her to rise and they did. She playfully tapped her finger on her chin, pretending to think of who she would throw the leaves at. Suddenly, without warning, all the leaves in the area speeded supersonically straight at Leo. Leo shrieked and started running as if his life depended on it, but the leaves just followed him. They dove at him and for a couple minutes, all you could see was a gigantic mass of leaves. Then the leaves left and fell to the ground, revealing Leo tightly tied up in a leafy twig tangled vines. The whole time Laura had been laughing hysterically. She knelt down besides Leo.

"That was AWESOME! You should have seen your face! It was priceless! And you scream like a high pitched girl", she snickered.

"I guess I deserved that.", Leo laughed.

Sammy and Anna ran over. "That was the greatest thing I've ever seen! Awesome job!", Anna smiled. She then turned to Leo and yelled in his face, "You just got beat by a girl!" She then turned back Laura, grinned again and the two girls did their secret celebratory handshake/fist pump.

"That was incredibly impressive.", Sammy yelled as he slapped Laura's back to congratulate her. "You totally kicked my brother's butt! Good for you." Laura smiled.

"Ummm . . . A little help please!", Leo groaned.

"Oh, sorry.", Laura cried. She snapped her fingers and the vines untied themselves, and then melted into the ground. She held out her hand and helped him up.

Leo mischievously smiled and then said, "That was a nice one, but I'll get you back!"

**Chapter 7**

Laura practiced other powers of Fall, like using wind and fog. She was getting good and loved her powers. To her they were beautifully sly and sneaky. To her Fall kind of gave her a feeling of calmness and peace. It was exciting, adventures, and festive all at the same time.

Anna practiced her powers as well. She was great at coaxing plants to grow bigger and manipulating flowers. She tried to summon rain and sunlight, but nothing really happened. She would have to work a little harder on that.

They both also worked on combat skills with their knives. Laura practiced with Leo and Anna practiced with Sammy. Because the boys had swords and were better swordsmen than the girls, the boys thought it would be better if they first started off using sticks, while the girls used their knives. The girls weren't good at all at first, but got a little better as they fought. At the end of the session, the girls had bruises everywhere from where the sticks had hit them.

"I told you I would get you back!", Leo said as he smiled at all Laura's blue and purple bruises. "But I'm just warming up. This is just the beginning!"

"We'll see about that!", Laura said back.

They sat in the shade of a maple tree and ate some lunch, and had some water to drink. Then, they headed on there way.

"We'll walk to Appleton and try and find a car to rent there. It'll take us about 4 hours, so let's get moving.", Sammy explained to the others. They walked on through the woods.

"I never knew these woods were so big!", Laura said finally. "I've explored and played in many parts of them, and I've never realized that they were this big and long. It's amazing!"

"I know.", Leo said. "We realized that the hard way, when we were getting chased by the Flamingshadow. We ran for hours. We were running for so long that we began to think that we were running in circles. This is a wood that you can easily get yourself lost in probably."

"That's why I loved exploring in here. You never knew what was going to happen. It was like an adventure!"

Leo smiled. "I know what you mean. It's fun to have a little adventure once in awhile."

Laura nodded. As they walked, she glanced over at Leo. He really was sort of handsome, in a weird kind of way. He was kind of pale, but had dark black hair, and stormy gray eyes, that looked like the color of a cloud that was going to bring a cold, icy, blizzard. Leo glanced over at Laura and caught her staring at him. He smiled.

"Are you staring at the Leo Master's dark luscious locks of hair and his awesome muscles.", he said laughing, while he puffed out his chest and showed off his puny little arms.

"No, I'm staring at you because you have a booger hanging out of your nose. You might want to wipe it off."

"What?!" His face turned bright red, as he wiped his nose frantically with his shirt sleeve. Laura giggled.

"Wow! Boys are so gullible." She laughed again. As Leo turned his head to look away, Laura could see that his face had turned a brighter red. She kind of felt bad for embarrassing him. She was just trying to cover up her own embarrassment. I bet he didn't even like her anyways, and the problem was, she didn't even know what her feelings were for him. Why was she making googly eyes at him in the first place? What was wrong with her? Then something tugged on her leg, and she was suddenly hanging upside down in the air. She screamed. A big black dog with yellow fangs and red wings had her leg clutched in it's claws. "HELP!", she shrieked, as she desperately tried to grab anything and everything to slow the creature down as it flew off. Leo, Sammy, and Anna looked up.

"Laura!", Anna screamed in horror. The monster matched the description of the Flamingshadow, Leo and Sammy described to her earlier. They all whipped into action. Leo shot ice at the monster, but the Flamingshadow was too high in the air, and all the ice did was freeze all the bushes and trees in the area. Anna made the grass below the monster grow faster, so she could tangle the monster, and pull it down to the ground. Soon it was up to their necks, but she didn't have enough energy to make it go any higher. Sammy summoned a thunderstorm, and lightning arced across the sky. The Flamingshadow let out a soft distressed growl, but still kept flying.

"None of this is going to work!", Sammy yelled over the thunder. "Let's just try and catch up with it!" They struggled through the tall grass Anna had grown. It wrapped around their ankles and pulled at their arms. Soon, they all couldn't move. They were all tangled in their own magic.

"You should really work on your growth magic.", Leo growled at Anna, as he struggled to rip the grass and get it untangled. Anna looked sorrowful. She didn't mean to do any of this, and now her sister was being carried off, and it was all her fault!

"Hey, I think she has been doing a great job on her growth magic, and it's not just her fault.", Sammy said. "We all made a mess, trying to get Laura down. You freezed all the trees and bushes, I made a giant thunderstorm that only made things worst, and Anna got us tangled in a little bit of grass." Anna smiled gratefully.

"A little bit of grass?!", Leo yelled. "Look at all this stupid grass!" He teared at the grass and ripped it to shreds in his anger. He pulled out his sword and cut Sammy and Anna loose. "What are we going to do?", he said miserably.

"Why do you care?", Sammy asked. "I thought you hated Laura."

Leo turned pale. "Oh. Well, I just thought Anna would feel horrible if she lost her sister forever, and ummm . . . thought we should really get Laura back for Anna's sake.

"Right, Anna's sake. You're so thoughtful.", Sammy said doubtfully.

They ran through the rest of the woods, while looking occasionally up at the sky. Laura wasn't in sight. They burst through the trees onto Ballard Road. They ran all the way to Appleton, only taking two breaks. By that time, it was dark and about 8:00 pm.

"You know, it would have been A LOT quicker if we had just asked Mrs. Frable to drive us to Appleton.", Leo yelled at Sammy, as he rested. "Then, we wouldn't have had to go through the woods, and Laura might still be here."

"I just wanted to have them train early where no one would see us!", Sammy yelled back angrily. He sighed tiredly. "Let's just rent a car."

"I wish we rented a more sporty car.", Leo complained. "Like a Ferrari!" They were cruising in a Chevrolet Aveo towards Sammy and Leo's fake dad in Turtle Lake, Montana, where they would figure out what to do next and how to rescue Laura. Sammy drove, while Anna and Leo sat in the back seats.

"Sorry, about not getting your dream car, but we're on a tight budget!", Sammy scolded as he kept his eyes on the road. "I just wanted to get the cheapest car I could find. This one was the cheapest, at the price of $129. I don't know how we're going to get this car back to them. I rented it for 3 days including today."

"When will we get off the road and stop somewhere?", Leo complained again. "I'm tired!"

"We're driving all night, and we won't take a break until we get to dad's house.", Sammy answered. "You can just sleep back there. Anna and I will take turns driving in shifts, so we can let each other sleep."

"You should be grateful.", Anna added. "'You're not old enough to drive, and can sleep all you want, so stop being a whiner puss!"

"Woah, since when did you start being such a cranky bully, like Laura.", Leo asked.

"Sorry, I'm just worried about Laura. I can't stop thinking about how frightened she must be."

"I have never had this much fun and have never been this least frightened in my whole entire life.", Laura thought, as she swung back and forth upside down from her legs. She changed the direction of the wind and had it push her forward. She laughed as the wind flung her back and forth, like she was on a swing. "This is sort of like skydiving, except you're not really falling. You're just swinging back and forth", Laura thought happily. She had been hanging upside down for what seemed like hours, as the Flamingshadow brought her to her death. After a while she had gotten really bored, just hanging there, with all the blood rushing to her head, so she had just started playing with the wind and swinging back and forth. It kind of felt like flying in a way or a really weird new version of skydiving. She knew she shouldn't be having fun, when a monster was bringing her to an unknown place where an evil man was waiting for her, but she couldn't help it. I mean, shouldn't she have fun because of the fact she was going to die?

Just then, she noticed that the Flamingshadow was descending. That must mean that she was getting close to Deathvol's lair. Her heart started to beat, and her happy feeling was crushed, as a feeling of dread seeped in.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 1**

"What are you doing?", Anna asked, as she stepped outside and closed the house door behind her. Laura was laying in the grass of the backyard, and looking up at the puffy clouds in the sky. Colorful leaves danced around her head and raced in the wind.

"I don't know.", Laura replied. "I just feel like being outside today and besides it's a beautiful day."

Laura was right about that, Anna thought. It was a crisp autumn afternoon and the sun was shining high in the sky. It's warm rays of beaming sunlight warmed Anna up, as she sat down and laid herself down beside her sister.

"I just love this time of year.", sighed Laura. "It makes me happier and calmer. I don't know why. It just does! Do you ever have that kind of feeling?"

"Sort of. I don't really have that kind of feeling now, but I do sort of have it during the spring sometimes.", replied Anna.

"Don't you ever think that that feeling means something? I mean, something important?", Laura asked hopefully.

"I don't know. I can't really say I have.", Anna says. "Come on. Let's go back inside. Mom wants us to do our chores before dinner."

"Okay.", Laura sighed, as she got up and followed her sister inside.

Laura and Anna live in a small house that sits at the end of Pine Lane near the Evergreen woods. It is a rather peaceful place to settle down and live. The street has a nice neighborhood and isn't at all that busy. The girls' family hate the busy city, so Pine Lane is perfect.

The girls' parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frable, are kind and the best possible parents a kid could ever ask for. They have all the traits parents should have. They are kind, gentle, protective of their beloved children, helpful, and above all, loving. They would do anything to protect and help Laura and Anna.

Like their parents, Laura and Anna are awesome. Laura has long, curly, pretty, red hair and warm, bright, amber eyes. She is curious, optimistic, graceful and enjoys an adventure. She is 13 years old and is younger than her sister. Anna is quite different than Laura. Anna has long, straight, dark, chocolate, brown hair and dazzling, light, green eyes. She is energetic, beautiful, sweet, and loves to run. She is 15 years old and is the oldest of the two sisters.

**Chapter 2**

"Did we lose it!?", Leo asked hopefully, as he ran for his life through the woods, while dodging trees and jumping over tree roots. His pack bounced on his back, making it hard to run.

"No! Not yet!", Sammy yelled back, as he too, ran faster than he'd ever ran before.

"What is that thing?", Leo cried.

"I think it's a Flamingshadow! They're Deathvol's followers and he must of sent one to kidnap us and bring us to his castle!

"Castle? That thing is not a castle! It's more like a dump that a dragon used for a bathroom!", Leo yelled back in disgust. He glanced up. The monster was hideous. It looked half phoenix and half dog; a dog Leo would hate to have as a pet. It's teeth looked like they were too big for it's mouth and were yellowed and stained with blood from it's last victim. It had dark red wings of a phoenix protruding from it's back and it's body was covered with black fur, the color of ash. Leo couldn't believe that the regular mortals couldn't see it.

"Leo! Stop daydreaming back there! A man eating beast is chasing us! Get a move on! Oh, and watch where you step. There's tree roots sticking out of the ground everywhere." Leo stopped looking up at the beast, tripped on a root, and smacked his face into a pine tree. Leo groaned and touched his hand to his head. Blood trickled down the side of his face. The Flamingshadow took the advantage and tucked it's feathery wings into it's body and went into a speedy dive towards Leo.

"I will get you Leo and this time you won't get away!", the mutt rasped. "I will take you to my master, and when he is finished with you, you will become my chew toy!"

"Well, that's very appealing and I would love to become your chew toy, but I'm kind of busy running away from you and that creepy dude, Deathvol.", Leo muttered as he staggered up from the ground, and rubbed his aching head.

"YOU WILL DIE LEO!", the monster said.

"Leo, look out! Flamingshadows can breath fire!", Sammy yelled, as he ran to his brother to help. Balls of flame rained down from above, catching the trees on fire. "Leo! Get behind me!", Sammy yelled even louder. Sammy concentrated on his powers and thought of flowing rivers, calm oceans, trickling streams, and splashing ponds. He channeled his powers into those thoughts and water sprang from his palm, gallons and gallons of water. He aimed the water at the raining flames and the fire extinguished into steaming mist. The monster was on top of them now, and the only thing stopping it was the sputtering flow of water. Sammy couldn't keep this up for long. Summoning this much water was draining his strength. Soon, the mutt would strike down, gather them in it's claws, and soar off towards Deathvol, who would only want to kill them. "Leo! Do you see that house on the edge of the woods? Go to it, knock on the door, and get inside no matter who comes to the door! You hear me!"

"What about you?", Leo asked.

"I'll be fine! Just go!", Sammy yelled.

"Why would I do that! I never go in the woods. That's what toilets are for. Duh!", Leo said.

"Uhhhhhhhh! Leo! You have a sick mind! That's gross man, really gross! You know what I meant! Leave!", Sammy said. Leo laughed.

"I'm not leaving without you! I need you!", Leo cried in a sarcastic voice. "What if there's strangers in that house."

"Fine! Do you have a better plan?!", Sammy cried in frustration. Why was Leo acting so calm and joking about this. Didn't he know they were in a life or death situation?

"Just watch the Leo Master!", Leo said dramatically. He walked past Sammy. "Could you turn that little hose coming out of your hand off?! It would be much appreciated." Sammy forced the water to come to a stop. "Thanks." He walked straight up to the Flamingshadow and yelled "FREEZE RAY!" A blast of chilly ice shot out of the palm of his hand and froze the monster in a suspended block of ice. "And that's how it's done!", Leo cried with a bow.

"Show off.", Sammy said. "Let's go to that house." They trudged through the woods and to the house. It was quite small, but it looked pretty cozy. Then they heard an ear piercing BARK! behind them. Both Sammy and Leo whirled around. The mutt had melted most of the ice away and it's paw was the only thing still encased in ice.

"How did it get out of the ice so quickly!?", Leo asked in amazement. "That was one of my best ice block encasings!"

"It doesn't matter how it got out! Just RUN!" Sammy and Leo ran to the house as fast as they could. Then they heard another BARK! This time it sounded only about a couple feet away. The monster must have broke free of that last piece of ice. They got to the doorsteps of the house. Leo rang the doorbell like a madman.

"OPEN UP! OPEN UP!", he screeched. The door opened. A girl about 13 years old had answered.

"What do you-", she began to say, but she couldn't finish, because the boys rushed forward, knocked her over, and slammed the door shut behind them.

**Chapter 3**

"What do you think you're doing?!", the 13 year old girl screamed at the boys as she got up.

"Something!", Leo said. "And it's none of your beeswax." They were standing in a room that was probably the living room. The walls were painted a pearly white and the carpet was shaggy and the color of sand. A big window with silky, creme colored curtains covered up most of the space on the wall, in front of the room. A light, blue sofa sat in front of the window, and a bookshelf full of movies and books sat on the left side of the sofa. On the opposite wall of the window, laid a plush chair that was the same shade of blue as the sofa. Between the chair and the sofa, was a white coffee table, piled high with more books. Another white table, sat next to the bookshelf with a T.V rested comfortably on top.

"MOM! DAD! ANNA! COME QUICK! THERE'S SOME RUDE STRANGERS IN OUR HOUSE!", the girl yelled. A man and a woman that must have been the girl's parents, came running in from the kitchen. Then two seconds later, a girl about Sammy's age bounded down from upstairs. She must be Anna.

"What's going on?", Anna asked. "And why is his head bleeding?!" Anna pointed at Leo.

"I don't know. The doorbell rang like a thousand times, so I went and answered the door, and these two boys were at the door, but before I could ask them what they wanted, they scrambled in, knocking me down in the process, and slammed the door shut.", the girl replied angrily.

"Do you think we should call the police on them?", the mom said.

"Yes!", the girl said excitedly with a mischievous grin.

"No!", Leo, Sammy, and Anna said together at the same time. Leo and Sammy looked at Anna in disbelief.

"I think we should at least give them a chance to state their story before we decide to hand them over to the police.", explained Anna.

"No, let's call the police and they can ask them what their story is in court. They are charged of technically breaking into our house and knocking over a sweet, little, innocent child!", said the girl.

"What's your name?", Leo asked the girl through gritted teeth. "Because I'm about to ship you off to South Africa!"

"Leo, calm down!", Sammy whispered. "You're not making this any better."

"Well, that's actually very nice of you because I've always had a dream to go to South Africa.", the girl said to Leo with sarcasm and a fake smile. "And my name is Laura by the way."

Leo balled his fists up and started forward, but Sammy held him back. "Ohhhhhhhh! When I get my hands on you! . . . . . . . "

"You'll do what?!", Laura spit back, while placing her hands on her hips.

"I'll . . . I'll . . . I'll freeze you in your tracks! Literally.", he answered. Laura didn't know what to say to that. She was puzzled at what he said and what he meant when he said he could literally freeze her in her tracks. She fell silent. Laura then glanced over at her parents. The pair of them seemed to be having a pretty aggressive discussion. They were whispering extremely fast while occasionally taking quick looks at the two boys. Laura listened intently.

"Honey, I know you don't want it to be true, but it's true. It's time . . .", she heard her dad whisper to her mom.

"What did that mean?", Laura thought. "What is it time for? Did this have anything to do with her? Why did her parents look so scared and nervous? Did this have anything to do with the boys? What was going on?" Laura had millions of questions and it was all mind boggling.

Her parents then suddenly looked up and immediately became quiet, when they noticed that everyone in the room was staring at them. Laura's mom cleared her throat nervously.

"How about you girls sit down with these boys for a second, and like Anna said, let them tell you their story. I'll get the boy a bandage for his head.", the girls' mom said as she and her husband rushed out of the room.

Laura and Anna plopped down on the living room couch by the window and Sammy and Leo reluctantly followed, and sat on the opposite sofa. There was a pause of awkward silence.

"Soooooo, what's your story?", Anna asked patiently.

"Oh, yeah, right, our story.", Sammy mumbled. "Ummmm . . . . . . . Well, to start with, we are photographers and we were in Evergreen woods taking pictures of the sky, the trees, the birds and stuff like that. Leo and I were just taking a picture of a woodpecker, when we saw a black bear and it's cubs. The mama black bear must have been sick or something, because when it saw us, it did not walk away like most bears do. Instead, it growled at us and then charged. Obviously we ran for our lives and . . . . .

"Running from a crazy bear is a really bad idea. You're suppose to play dead.", Anna cut in.

"Ok then miss know it all! Can you let my brother talk?", Leo said.

"It's fine Leo. ", Sammy said. "Anyways, we ran for our lives, and then we quickly climbed up some trees and then. . . . . . . . . ."

"Don't you know that black bears can climb trees?!", Anna cut in again.

"Yes, I know, but we were under pressure!", Sammy said defensively. "Now let me continue. We quickly climbed up some trees and the bear followed us up mere seconds later. Then . . . . ."

"An ugly monster flew from the sky and attacked us!", Leo interrupted. Sammy glared at Leo.

"Ha! Ha! Ha! Very funny Leo. He's just joking. Leo is always joking around.", Sammy said nervously with a half hearted laugh. "Ahh, where was I?"

"The bear was climbing up the tree, and then an ugly monster attacked you.", Laura offered.

"No! No! No! A monster never attacked us!", Sammy said quickly while shaking his head.

"Uhh, Sammy?", Leo asked slowly while continually poking Sammy in the arm.

"Don't interrupt.", Sammy said as he swatted Leo's hand away. "As I was saying . . . . ."

"Sammy!" Leo yelled, this time poking Sammy even harder.

"What is your problem!?", Sammy asked.

Leo leaned forward. "Look at what they're wearing around their necks.", he whispered to Sammy. Sammy looked up at the girls. They were both wearing matching necklaces, strung with a glass pendant. Both of the pendants looked oddly familiar. They had a single flower with leaf shaped petals painted on them. The only difference between the two pendants was the color of the flowers. Anna's flower was pink and Laura's flower was orange. Then he realized why they looked so familiar. He had one that looked exactly like theirs, except the flower on his pendant was green. Leo had one too, except the flower on his was blue. His eyes widened.

"Do you know what this means?", Leo whispered.

"Yes. It means that we finally found fall and spring!", Sammy whispered excitedly.

"Helloooo! We're still here! Are you done with your gossiping girls whispering?", Laura said impatiently. "Finish the story already!"

"We're not girls.", Leo grumbled. "And our story was a lie."

"That's another reason why we should give you up to the cops.", Laura said.

"I really don't want these girls to be the ones.", Leo whispered to Sammy. "I was hoping for maybe some cute girls." Sammy rolled his eyes.

"Why did you lie to us?, Anna asked. "I'm going to have to agree with my sister about you guys being turned into the police. Lying to us is not really helping your reputation right now. Can you tell us the real story?"

"Yes, actually I was just about to do that very thing, but no matter how crazy this story is, you have to promise that you will believe us.", Sammy said sternly.

"I will.", replied Anna.

"Fine.", replied Laura with a sigh. "As long as it's a good story."

"Oh, it's very good. Maybe even mind blowing. You'll see.", Leo said.

**Chapter 4**

"There's a legend that the world is separated into two groups, mortals and super beings.", Sammy began. "There's a legend that long ago, these super beings were being ruled by an evil ruler who had powers stronger than anyone's. They say he killed anyone that got on his bad side and stood in his path. He went by the name, Deathvol. There was a war. Super-beings against Deathvol. Billions of people against one."

"Who won?", Laura asked

"Some people say that the super-beings won and Deathvol was defeated. Some say that he went into hiding and is still alive to this very day.", Sammy explained. "Now this is where the story gets kind of interesting. Do you know who Mother Nature is?"

"Yes.", the girls said in unison.

"Well, people say that Mother Nature was the one who defeated Deathvol.", Sammy explained. "Do you want to know something else about Mother Nature that's interesting? Well, a couple of months after she defeated Deathvol she had a daughter. Then, about 2 years after that, she had another daughter. No one knows if any of this is true, but if it is true, those two girls who were born from Mother Nature are said to have powers. The child that was born first is said to have the powers of Spring. She is said to have brown hair the color of the fresh clean dirt of a garden. Her eyes are said to be as bright and warm as the awakening sun and light green like the newly sprouted plants in early Spring. She is energetic and loves to run like the prancing deer, the hopping bunnies, and the skittering chipmunks. She is also said to be beautiful and sweet like the flowers that bloom in the sun. The child that was born second is said to have the powers of Fall. She is said to have hair as red as the colorful tree tops in autumn and have amber colored eyes. She is said to be as graceful as the falling leaves, but fierce like the frigid winds of October. She loves adventure and is sly, sneaky, and curious like the leaves that creep off their branches and race away in the wind.", Sammy finally finished.

Everything in the room fell silent. Leo stared at the girls watching to see how they would react to Sammy's story.

"Soooooooo, what are you trying to say to us?", Laura asked slowly.

"Oh my gosh! Are you that dumb! Did you go to school at all?!", Leo chuckled in disbelief.

"Laura, they're trying to say that we are the two girls in the story that were born from Mother Nature.", Anna choked.

Laura burst out laughing uncontrollably. "That's ridiculous!", she said between giggles. "You're joking right?" She stopped laughing and looked at everyone else.

"Anna's right, ugly duck. Your sister obviously went to school.", Leo smirked.

"Did you just call me ugly duck?!", Laura demanded.

"Leo, knock it off!", Sammy said. "The girls probably have questions and you're not making it very easy for them. They just found out that their real mom is Mother Nature and that they have magical powers. It's probably a lot for them to take in."

"Thank you!", Anna and Lara said in unison.

"Wait a minute! That means I was right! Remember how I thought that the feelings I have during Fall mean something, Anna?

"Oh, yeah, I remember! Wow, that's weird how you knew that."

"That is kind of weird", Sammy says. "Do you girls have any questions about all of this?"

"Oh, yes! I have a lot of questions and I bet Laura does too. She's really curious and her mind is probably exploding right now. Ok, First of all, how do you know all this information? Do you guys have any powers? How do you guys tie into this?"

"Good questions. Ummmmmmmmmmm . . . . . . . We don't exactly know the answers to those questions," Sammy confessed. "But I can tell you this. I have the power of Summer and Leo has Winter powers. We don't exactly know how we tie in with you. Mother Nature isn't our mom, so we don't know how we got our powers. Our fake parents aren't mortals like yours are. Our fake parents are super-beings, so throughout our life our fake parents trained us to use our powers. They told us stories of the war and about the history of super-beings."

"What kind of powers do super-beings have? Do they have powers of the seasons like us?", Laura asked curiously.

"No, the four of us are special.", Sammy answered. "Super-beings usually have powers like flying, telekinesis, super strength, superhuman intelligence, and other stuff like that. When a super-being is born you can't tell what kind of power they have right away. When super-beings grow up, signs gradually show up, like our fake dad for example, he has super-speed. His first sign was when he was 8 years old. He was running around on the playground at school and his friends and him were playing tag. He was it. He was chasing after one of his friends when he all of a sudden sped up uncontrollably. He was going 60 mph and he couldn't control it. He slammed right into the kid that he was trying to tag. They both ended up getting huge bloody noses and the kid that our dad ran over, got a major concussion and some broken bones."

"Yikes!", Laura exclaimed. "Do all powers have signs like that?"

"No.", Sammy answered. "It all depends on what kind of power you have. Our fake dad had a couple of little signs that weren't that bad, but most of his signs were really bad. His worst one happened when he was 14 years old. He was playing in a football game and he had the ball. He was running towards the touchdown zone, when he started running 229,951 mph. He was a blur and no one could see him because he was going so fast. He couldn't stop! His legs finally stopped moving, which was a great relief for him, but the problem was that he didn't know where he was. He finally found out that he was in Winchester, United Kingdom (Great Britain). Luckily he had his phone and he called his parents. His parents told him that it was going to take them about 20 hours to get over there so he would have to stay the night somewhere. So he went door to door asking people if he could stay the night because he didn't have any other ideas of what to do. He didn't have any money and he was in a place that he had never been to. A nice old woman finally took him in. Then at about 9:00 in the morning (United Kingdom time) his parents called him asking where he was and he told them the address of where he was staying. They picked him up about 20 minutes later and he was headed back home on a plane with his parents a couple minutes after that.

"Wow, that must have been a big scare for his parents.", Anna said.

"Yeah, it was.", Sammy agreed. "But it was a big scare for him as well."

"How does all this super-beings thing work exactly?", Laura asked slowly. "I mean, how are they hiding from the mortals? Do they just act like regular mortals? How is a super-being born? Can a super-being marry a mortal? Is this like Harry Potter, where there are pure bloods, muggles, squibs, and half bloods? "

"Ok, slow down missy!", Leo cut in. "What is going on inside that little brain of yours? Do you always have these many questions?"

Laura glared at Leo. "I wasn't talking to you." She turned back to look at Sammy. "Can you please answer my dying questions quickly, before Mr. Leo Frost over here interrupts again?"

"Sure thing. I'll try my best to answer your questions. What do you want to know first?", Sammy asked.

"Just tell me the whole history of how super-beings started and stuff.", Laura simply answered. "I just want to know how things work in the life of a super-being."

"Ok, well, super-beings have been living under the noses of the mortals for ages now. We just act like all the other mortals in the world. We do this for two reasons. One, because if the mortals knew about us, they might make us all into slaves, so that we can do their dirty work with our powers. Two, you know how I said that some people say that Deathvol went into hiding after the war? Well, we act like the mortals to also hide from Deathvol in case he comes back. Super-beings live all over the world. In order to be a super-being both of your parents have to be super-beings. There has never been a born super-being who has had a mortal for a parent, but it could be possible. You could marry a mortal, but that is very risky because you could easily expose our whole entire species of people. You also wouldn't be able to continue generations of super-beings because like I said before, no super-being has ever been born if they had a mortal parent.

"That's kind of sad.", Anna said.

"And why is that? Do you have any dreamy boyfriends?", Leo asked.

"Maybe. It's really none of your concern. Is it?" Anna blushed.

"I didn't know you liked someone! Why didn't you tell me!? Who is it?", Laura asked excitedly.

"I never said I had a boyfriend or liked someone", Anna replied hotly. "Please, would you all just drop it!"

"Wait a minute! Why did you guys burst into our house in the first place? You guys aren't really photographers. Are you?", Laura asked the boys.

"Of course we're not photographers! If we were I would not be very good at it. I would probably wake up the whole forest when trying to take a picture of an animal. I'm also very active. I can't really sit in one place for a long time. I get fidgety.", Leo said. "And besides we already told you that we lied about that."

"Then what's the real reason why you came here?", Laura asked again. Leo launched into the whole story about how they got chased by a Flamingshadow and why his head was bleeding. When he finally finished Laura asked, "Why was the Flamingshadow chasing you in the first place?"

"We were looking for you girls. Our fake dad had told us the tale of Mother Nature and the two girls who had the power of Spring and Fall. He said we had to find you once we were trained. He said that once we found you that we would have to bring you to him and help him train you. Once you were ready, we would have to journey to Deathvol's dump of a castle and defeat him."

"What? I thought Deathvol was dead or in hiding? Why do we have to kill him?"

"He's not dead and he isn't in hiding anymore. He's becoming more powerful by the second. We don't know why he got so powerful all of a sudden or why he came out of hiding, but he's been sending his followers after us ever since he found out we were looking for you."

"Why?"

"Because he knows that if we find you, we will be able to stop him once and for all. When all four of us are together we are very powerful."

"Makes sense.", Laura replied.

**Chapter 5**

Laura slouched on the couch in silence and gazed around the room, not knowing what to say. Then, she abruptly sat up and suddenly said, "I just noticed you're still bleeding! Are you ok?!"

Leo looked up. It looked like Laura had disturbed some deep thoughts that were whirling in his mind. "You just noticed that?", he asked incredibly. "I've been sitting here for at least a half an hour with blood trickling down the side of my face, and you haven't noticed?"

"Sorry. I wonder why mom hasn't brought the bandages yet."

Just on cue, Mrs. Frable shuffled in nervously along with her husband. She cleaned Leo's wound with a washcloth and bandaged it up gently.

"What took you so long? I was bleeding to death.", Leo said sarcastically.

She laughed. "Sorry, I couldn't find the bandages. There's just so much on my mind, and I guess I was just distracted with my thoughts that I wasn't looking for them hard enough."

"Mom. Dad. You know what we were talking about. Don't you.", Anna quietly spoke. "You knew that Mother Nature was our real mother. You knew that we had powers of the seasons. I can tell you knew. Why didn't you ever tell us?"

Their mom sighed. "I'm sorry. Your dad and I just wanted to protect you and we really didn't know how to tell you." She sat down on the couch beside the girls. "I didn't really want you to know anyways, because I didn't want you to go away. I wanted you to stay with me. I love you and I didn't want to lose you." She grabbed the two girls and they shared a group hug. "I'm sorry", she whispered, tears streaming down her face.

Tears streamed down Laura's face too. She was going to miss her mom. She then realized that she was still calling her fake mom, "mom". Should she stop calling her, "mom". She couldn't bare to think of doing that.

"You'll always be my mom.", Laura said between sobs. "I don't care if you're my fake mom or not! You'll always be my mom."

"And the both of you, will always be my daughter." She kissed Laura and Anna lightly on the head and hugged them one last time. She then said, as she walked into the kitchen, wiping her eyes, "You better go get ready and pack for your journey. I'll go pack you some food for the road."

Laura then said, turning to her dad, "You'll always be our dad too! I love you and you have been the best dad ever, and always will be. I'll miss you." Laura meant it. She would miss the times when her and her dad would play catch in the yard. She would miss the way her dad was so good with computers. She would miss the times her dad would help her with her homework, even when the work took until 10:00 pm to do, sometimes even 12:00 am when she had loads of homework in every subject.

"Ah . . . Come here sweetie!", he said gently while pulling her into a hug. "You sound as if this is our last time seeing each other."

"This might as well be because we're probably going to die out there anyways.", Anna spoke for the first time in a while.

"Don't say that! You're not going to die. I know you girls, and you are both strong, talented, and beautiful. I know you will stop at nothing to finish the job that's at hand. If you need any help, I'm here for you, so just give me a call. I love you", he let go of Laura and patted her on the head, then quickly hugged Anna, then went into the kitchen to help their mom.

Anna sat in the middle of her room wondering what exactly to bring. She had never been on any kind of journey. She wasn't really a curious person in the first place, so she never felt the need to go on adventures. She never really wanted to end up in any trouble either, that was Laura's job. Laura loved to go hiking in the woods and stray off the path and go looking for trouble and find adventure.

"Hey, are you ready?", Laura asked excitedly. She stood in the doorway, waiting impatiently with a backpack slung over her shoulder, her red curls tied back into a ponytail and her favorite baseball cap sat snug on her head. She wore a black sweatshirt, jeans, and sneakers.

"I didn't even start."

"Want me to help?"

"Yes", Anna replied gratefully. Laura sat down her backpack and closed the door behind her. She went into Anna's closet and grabbed a pink T Shirt, a brown sweatshirt, some jeans, and a pair of sneakers.

"Put these on." Laura threw the clothes to Anna. Laura then found a backpack and filled it with some extra clothes, a hat, a warm blanket, a flashlight, and a lightweight sleeping bag. She then ran into the bathroom and came back with Anna's toothbrush, some toothpaste, and a small first aid kit, and put those into Anna's bag as well. When Anna was dressed, they grabbed their backpacks and went down stairs into the kitchen. There waited their mom, dad, Leo, and Sammy. Their mom stuffed a bag of food and money into the girls' packs and strapped some water bottles on them. Their parents then gave them all a big group hug, including Leo and Sammy, and told them all to be careful.

The four kids all waved goodbye as they walked outside into the chilly wind to start a journey that would change their lives forever.

**Chapter 6**

Laura, Anna, Leo, and Sammy trekked through the Evergreen woods in silence. The woods were densely populated with trees, so there wasn't much light except for the very little sunlight that tried squeezing through the gaps where the leaves didn't overlap. They had to watch where they stepped too, because there were no trails and the ground was scattered with rocks. Tree roots stuck out of the ground at odd angles, looking as if they were trying to grab you and drag you to the ground. Birds twittered in the trees and the squirrels didn't seem to be bothered by the darkness as they jumped and ran through the trees with ease. They all followed Sammy in a somewhat single file line deeper and deeper into the woods.

Laura broke the silence by questioning nervously, "You know how you guys said that the Flamingshadow was chasing you and it was literally nipping at your heels and that's why you came bursting into our house?"

"Yeah, what's your point?", Leo said exasperatedly.

"Where did it go and where is it now?"

Everyone's eyes widened as they just realized what Laura was trying to say. A twig snapped behind them and they all whirled around. Anna and Laura screamed ear piercing screams, and then sighed in relief. It was only a bunny. Leo fell to the ground, laughing so hard. He did this for at least 4 min. and then got up, wiping tears of laughter out of his eyes. Anna blushed and Laura's face turned as red as her hair.

"You two are pathetic.", Leo cried in disgust. "If you're always going to scream like little girls whenever you see a monster, you're going to get yourselves killed, because we're going to see a lot of them." He shook his head and laughed again, this time more to himself.

"Laura does have a point though.", Sammy spoke. "We don't know where the Flamingshadow went and we don't know where it is now."

"So, I guess it's just safe to assume that it's lurking in these woods", Anna said simply, but frightened.

"That was exactly what I was going to suggest.", Sammy said. He reached into his pack and digged around. Then, he pulled out two knives and slung his bag back over his shoulder. "Here's a knife. We brought two in case we ever did find you. They're specially made for you based off of your season and your personality.", he said as he handed a knife to Anna, and one to Laura.

"They're beautiful.", Laura whispered. Laura's knife was about 10½ inches long and the handle was engraved with elegant carvings of crab apples, wild turkeys, nuts, berries, squirrels, and warbler birds. Small red maple leaves, golden oak leaves, and beautiful orange chrysanthemums intertwined around the handle. Laura ran her finger across the handle back and forth, marveling at the handy carving. The designs looked so real, that it was almost unbelievable.

"Where did you get these? Who made these?", Anna asked in wonder. She too loved her knife and was wonder struck. The handle of her knife was from the blossoming American red bud tree. She knew because they had one in their backyard, back at their house. It was a gorgeous tree that blossomed with pink rosy flowers and had cute heart shaped leaves. She also knew because she had a feeling it was a red bud tree. "Must be part of my powers of Spring", she decided. The handle of the knife also had carvings of bluebirds, tulips, daisies, and little baby chicks and bunnies taking their first steps into the world. She smiled when she looked at the carvings.

"They were made by one of our fake dad's friends who has the power to build anything.", Sammy said. "Our dad told him to make them along, with our swords."

"Your swords?", Laura asked. "Can we see them?"

"Sure." Sammy pulled out his sword. The handle was encrusted with rubies and when you looked at it too long, it seemed to be engulfed in fire. On the blade it said Flame Spreader.

"Why does it say that on the blade?", Laura asked curiously.

"It's the name of the sword. One of my powers is fire and whenever you stab someone or something with this sword, they turn to ash."

"Cool!", Laura exclaimed

"Wait a minute. You have the power of water and fire?", Anna asked incredibly. "Those are like opposites."

"Yeah we thought that that was sort of weird too.", Sammy said as he rubbed the back of his neck, like he was embarrassed. "We think I have water because of all the swimming and all the beaches that people go to in the summer. I mean, water is kind of a summer thing. We always run through the sprinklers, swim at the local swimming pools, and dump water bottles over our heads to keep cool in the summer."

"Yeah, I know. I get the reason why you have water. Why do you have fire?"

"We guessed on that one. We think it's because of the sun and how it's really hot in the summer."

"I guess that makes sense, but it's still weird that you have water and fire, because they're complete opposites!"

"Can we see your sword?", Laura said to Leo, as she cut in. "Does your sword have powers too?!"

"Yeah, if I want it to.", he said as he pulled his sword out of a sheath hanging at his side. It looked a lot like Sammy's sword, except for a few exceptions. His sword was a little shorter and the handle was encrusted with glistening diamonds. The blade glowed with blue light and said Frostbite on it.

"What do you mean, "if you want it to"."

"I mean, if I speak the words "Congelationis, succensus excoquat", my sword will freeze anything, or anyone I stab. If I don't want to freeze someone with my sword, I just don't speak those words."

"How does the sword know to stop freezing people?"

"Oh! I forgot to tell you that. You just have to say "liquefáciet"

"Wow! Do our knives do anything?", Laura asked excitedly.

"No, they're just knives to set on the mantel to gaze at, and act as decoration."

"What? That's no fair! Can they be still used for fighting?"

"Of course they can! I was just kidding.", Leo joked. "They actually do have powers. You can store some of your powers into it, so if you're fighting and you get really weak, you'll have that back up power to use."

"Cool! I'm guessing that will be pretty useful. How do we store our power into them? because I want to do it right now just incase.", Laura said, as she searched for a button on her knife that would help her put her powers into it.

"You can't store power in it yet, because you don't have your powers developed yet, so in the meantime just use it as a knife."

They began walking again and they talked as they went.

"So, where is your dad's house?", Laura questioned. "Will it take us long to get there?"

"Yeah, it's going to take a pretty long time. He lives in Turtle Lake, Montana, which is a really small town and it'll take us about 19 - 20 days if we walk there nonstop.", Sammy answered. "That will never happen though, and I bet you guys will agree with me. I'm certainly not going to walk nonstop.

"I totally agree.", Leo said. "There's nothing good about doing that. If we would do that, our feet would hurt, we would be exhausted, we wouldn't be able to sleep, our feet would hurt some more, and our backs would hurt. The only good thing about that plan is that it would be a lot faster if we just walked regular pace and took breaks and slept, and the fact that the trip would probably kill us before Deathvol even got his hands on us."

"So, how are we going to get there?", Anna asked.

"I was thinking that we would rent a car and drive there.", Sammy said.

"So, what are we doing walking through these woods?"

"When we were getting chased by the Flaming Shadow, I saw a clearing somewhere deep in these woods that would be a great place to practice and train. I thought we could try to get your powers working a little bit before we go."

In about 20 more minutes they had made it to the clearing that Sammy had talked about.

"Leo and I are going to work with you first, Laura, because your the most powerful right now and Deathvol will be hunting you down the most."

"What?!", Laura choked. "What do you mean?", she asked bewildered.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you didn't I?", Sammy mumbled. "I assumed that you kind of knew. I don't really want to sound mean, but what season is it right now?

"Fall."

"And who here has the power of Fall?"

"Me."

"So, do you get it?"

"Yeah, but you should have told me this earlier. Wouldn't you have wanted to know that a mass murderer was after you?!"

"I guess you have a point. Anyways, let's get back to work. First, I want you to start with something simple like making a stack of leaves float in the air. Relax your mind, clear it of anything else you're thinking, concentrate, and imagine the leaves float weightlessly off the ground like they're nothing.", Sammy coached.

"Ok, I can do this.", Laura whispered to herself as she closed her eyes and concentrated. She tried to clear her mind, but it was technically useless because of everything that was going on in her life. All the questions she still had, kept popping up in her mind. She tried to swipe the questions away and forget about them, but they just stayed floating in her mind, unanswered. She instead tried to concentrate on the sounds around her, like the chirping songbirds, and the rustling leaves. She breathed softly in and out. Then, she pictured the stack of leaves floating just slightly above her head. She opened her eyes and saw that it had worked! The leaves were floating just above her head! She smiled up at the leaves. It kind of looked like a leafy halo. Everyone cheered.

"Great Job!", Sammy cried. "Now try throwing the leaves up into the air."

Laura concentrated again and imagined the leaves being thrown up into the air and to her great surprise it worked, this time even faster. The leaves flew up into the air as if an invisible person had tossed them, and then they fluttered down in a big colorful shower.

"Wow! This is going faster than I thought. You're a fast learner.", Sammy grinned. "Now try using the leaves like a rope to wrap someone up and entangle them."

"And I can entangle anyone of you?", she said with a sly grin.

"Sure, just don't kill anyone.", Sammy chuckled. Leo and Anna's eyes widened and hoped that they wouldn't be chosen to be entangled. What if something went wrong? Both tried to think of things that they did or said to ever make Laura mad.

Laura spoke to the leaves with her mind and ordered all the leaves around her to rise and they did. She playfully tapped her finger on her chin, pretending to think of who she would throw the leaves at. Suddenly, without warning, all the leaves in the area speeded supersonically straight at Leo. Leo shrieked and started running as if his life depended on it, but the leaves just followed him. They dove at him and for a couple minutes, all you could see was a gigantic mass of leaves. Then the leaves left and fell to the ground, revealing Leo tightly tied up in a leafy twig tangled vines. The whole time Laura had been laughing hysterically. She knelt down besides Leo.

"That was AWESOME! You should have seen your face! It was priceless! And you scream like a high pitched girl", she snickered.

"I guess I deserved that.", Leo laughed.

Sammy and Anna ran over. "That was the greatest thing I've ever seen! Awesome job!", Anna smiled. She then turned to Leo and yelled in his face, "You just got beat by a girl!" She then turned back Laura, grinned again and the two girls did their secret celebratory handshake/fist pump.

"That was incredibly impressive.", Sammy yelled as he slapped Laura's back to congratulate her. "You totally kicked my brother's butt! Good for you." Laura smiled.

"Ummm . . . A little help please!", Leo groaned.

"Oh, sorry.", Laura cried. She snapped her fingers and the vines untied themselves, and then melted into the ground. She held out her hand and helped him up.

Leo mischievously smiled and then said, "That was a nice one, but I'll get you back!"

**Chapter 7**

Laura practiced other powers of Fall, like using wind and fog. She was getting good and loved her powers. To her they were beautifully sly and sneaky. To her Fall kind of gave her a feeling of calmness and peace. It was exciting, adventures, and festive all at the same time.

Anna practiced her powers as well. She was great at coaxing plants to grow bigger and manipulating flowers. She tried to summon rain and sunlight, but nothing really happened. She would have to work a little harder on that.

They both also worked on combat skills with their knives. Laura practiced with Leo and Anna practiced with Sammy. Because the boys had swords and were better swordsmen than the girls, the boys thought it would be better if they first started off using sticks, while the girls used their knives. The girls weren't good at all at first, but got a little better as they fought. At the end of the session, the girls had bruises everywhere from where the sticks had hit them.

"I told you I would get you back!", Leo said as he smiled at all Laura's blue and purple bruises. "But I'm just warming up. This is just the beginning!"

"We'll see about that!", Laura said back.

They sat in the shade of a maple tree and ate some lunch, and had some water to drink. Then, they headed on there way.

"We'll walk to Appleton and try and find a car to rent there. It'll take us about 4 hours, so let's get moving.", Sammy explained to the others. They walked on through the woods.

"I never knew these woods were so big!", Laura said finally. "I've explored and played in many parts of them, and I've never realized that they were this big and long. It's amazing!"

"I know.", Leo said. "We realized that the hard way, when we were getting chased by the Flamingshadow. We ran for hours. We were running for so long that we began to think that we were running in circles. This is a wood that you can easily get yourself lost in probably."

"That's why I loved exploring in here. You never knew what was going to happen. It was like an adventure!"

Leo smiled. "I know what you mean. It's fun to have a little adventure once in awhile."

Laura nodded. As they walked, she glanced over at Leo. He really was sort of handsome, in a weird kind of way. He was kind of pale, but had dark black hair, and stormy gray eyes, that looked like the color of a cloud that was going to bring a cold, icy, blizzard. Leo glanced over at Laura and caught her staring at him. He smiled.

"Are you staring at the Leo Master's dark luscious locks of hair and his awesome muscles.", he said laughing, while he puffed out his chest and showed off his puny little arms.

"No, I'm staring at you because you have a booger hanging out of your nose. You might want to wipe it off."

"What?!" His face turned bright red, as he wiped his nose frantically with his shirt sleeve. Laura giggled.

"Wow! Boys are so gullible." She laughed again. As Leo turned his head to look away, Laura could see that his face had turned a brighter red. She kind of felt bad for embarrassing him. She was just trying to cover up her own embarrassment. I bet he didn't even like her anyways, and the problem was, she didn't even know what her feelings were for him. Why was she making googly eyes at him in the first place? What was wrong with her? Then something tugged on her leg, and she was suddenly hanging upside down in the air. She screamed. A big black dog with yellow fangs and red wings had her leg clutched in it's claws. "HELP!", she shrieked, as she desperately tried to grab anything and everything to slow the creature down as it flew off. Leo, Sammy, and Anna looked up.

"Laura!", Anna screamed in horror. The monster matched the description of the Flamingshadow, Leo and Sammy described to her earlier. They all whipped into action. Leo shot ice at the monster, but the Flamingshadow was too high in the air, and all the ice did was freeze all the bushes and trees in the area. Anna made the grass below the monster grow faster, so she could tangle the monster, and pull it down to the ground. Soon it was up to their necks, but she didn't have enough energy to make it go any higher. Sammy summoned a thunderstorm, and lightning arced across the sky. The Flamingshadow let out a soft distressed growl, but still kept flying.

"None of this is going to work!", Sammy yelled over the thunder. "Let's just try and catch up with it!" They struggled through the tall grass Anna had grown. It wrapped around their ankles and pulled at their arms. Soon, they all couldn't move. They were all tangled in their own magic.

"You should really work on your growth magic.", Leo growled at Anna, as he struggled to rip the grass and get it untangled. Anna looked sorrowful. She didn't mean to do any of this, and now her sister was being carried off, and it was all her fault!

"Hey, I think she has been doing a great job on her growth magic, and it's not just her fault.", Sammy said. "We all made a mess, trying to get Laura down. You freezed all the trees and bushes, I made a giant thunderstorm that only made things worst, and Anna got us tangled in a little bit of grass." Anna smiled gratefully.

"A little bit of grass?!", Leo yelled. "Look at all this stupid grass!" He teared at the grass and ripped it to shreds in his anger. He pulled out his sword and cut Sammy and Anna loose. "What are we going to do?", he said miserably.

"Why do you care?", Sammy asked. "I thought you hated Laura."

Leo turned pale. "Oh. Well, I just thought Anna would feel horrible if she lost her sister forever, and ummm . . . thought we should really get Laura back for Anna's sake.

"Right, Anna's sake. You're so thoughtful.", Sammy said doubtfully.

They ran through the rest of the woods, while looking occasionally up at the sky. Laura wasn't in sight. They burst through the trees onto Ballard Road. They ran all the way to Appleton, only taking two breaks. By that time, it was dark and about 8:00 pm.

"You know, it would have been A LOT quicker if we had just asked Mrs. Frable to drive us to Appleton.", Leo yelled at Sammy, as he rested. "Then, we wouldn't have had to go through the woods, and Laura might still be here."

"I just wanted to have them train early where no one would see us!", Sammy yelled back angrily. He sighed tiredly. "Let's just rent a car."

"I wish we rented a more sporty car.", Leo complained. "Like a Ferrari!" They were cruising in a Chevrolet Aveo towards Sammy and Leo's fake dad in Turtle Lake, Montana, where they would figure out what to do next and how to rescue Laura. Sammy drove, while Anna and Leo sat in the back seats.

"Sorry, about not getting your dream car, but we're on a tight budget!", Sammy scolded as he kept his eyes on the road. "I just wanted to get the cheapest car I could find. This one was the cheapest, at the price of $129. I don't know how we're going to get this car back to them. I rented it for 3 days including today."

"When will we get off the road and stop somewhere?", Leo complained again. "I'm tired!"

"We're driving all night, and we won't take a break until we get to dad's house.", Sammy answered. "You can just sleep back there. Anna and I will take turns driving in shifts, so we can let each other sleep."

"You should be grateful.", Anna added. "'You're not old enough to drive, and can sleep all you want, so stop being a whiner puss!"

"Woah, since when did you start being such a cranky bully, like Laura.", Leo asked.

"Sorry, I'm just worried about Laura. I can't stop thinking about how frightened she must be."

"I have never had this much fun and have never been this least frightened in my whole entire life.", Laura thought, as she swung back and forth upside down from her legs. She changed the direction of the wind and had it push her forward. She laughed as the wind flung her back and forth, like she was on a swing. "This is sort of like skydiving, except you're not really falling. You're just swinging back and forth", Laura thought happily. She had been hanging upside down for what seemed like hours, as the Flamingshadow brought her to her death. After a while she had gotten really bored, just hanging there, with all the blood rushing to her head, so she had just started playing with the wind and swinging back and forth. It kind of felt like flying in a way or a really weird new version of skydiving. She knew she shouldn't be having fun, when a monster was bringing her to an unknown place where an evil man was waiting for her, but she couldn't help it. I mean, shouldn't she have fun because of the fact she was going to die?

Just then, she noticed that the Flamingshadow was descending. That must mean that she was getting close to Deathvol's lair. Her heart started to beat, and her happy feeling was crushed, as a feeling of dread seeped in.

**Chapter 8**

Anna woke to a start as the car lurched forward, then did a fast turn, knocking her to her right and making her fall onto sleeping Leo.

"Sammy, you're kind of driving like a loony. Do you want me to take over?", Anna offered. He said nothing. She then realized that it wasn't Leo who she had fallen onto. It was Sammy! Her eyes widened.

"Leo! What do you think you're doing?! You can't drive! You're not old enough!"

"Sammy started falling asleep on the job, so I told him to pull over and let someone else drive.", Leo answered. "So, Sammy climbed into the back seat and fell asleep instantly. You were still snoozing away, so I decided to drive."

"Pull over! I'm driving, or else you're going to get us in trouble."

"I'm 13! I'll be driving in 2 years."

"Just pull over!"

Laura gazed down at the landscape before her. It was littered with boulders and no green plants were in sight. Brown dead grass stuck up from the crumbled dirt. Mud was splattered everywhere like a group of boys just had a mud fight. It was sickening and a total dump just like Leo had said. In the midst of all the depressing mud and stones was a rocky black castle. The Flamingshadow descended towards it and glided to the ground while tossing Laura into the dirt. The monster landed beside her, and then suddenly the doors to the castle burst open. Men in armor, carrying swords stormed out of the castle and swarmed around Laura. They roughly dragged and pushed her to her feet, then bound her hands behind her back, blindfolded her, and covered her mouth. One of the men then held a sword to her throat as all the men walked into the castle and lead Laura through the twists and turns of the gigantic building. As she walked she could tell that the castle floors were made of polished smooth rock and that the ceiling was very tall, maybe about 50 feet high. She was kind of half glad that she was blindfolded, because she could hear some sounds that didn't sound very pleasant and gave her the chills. She could hear millions of men bustling around with armor and she could hear the clash of swords. She could hear the cries of prisoners off in the distant, the screams of people dying and begging for mercy, and worst of all, she could hear the growls and roars of monsters of all kind, rattling the bars of their cages. The men then steered her away from all the sounds and opened a huge pair of doors. The man holding the sword to her throat, took off her blindfold and uncovered her mouth, while keeping the sword to her throat. Laura looked around. She seemed to be standing in a throne room. There were walls made of pure black marble and black shiny tiled flooring, which gave the room an evil aura. There was no lighting, except a small silver chandelier covered with spider webs that dimly lit the room. A tall elegant black and silver throne sat in the back of the room and in it sat a young man.

The man holding the sword to Laura's neck spoke, "My Lord, we have found the girl."

It was finally early morning and they were only 12 miles away from the boys' dad's house. Anna was still driving from the night before. Sammy had just woken up, and Leo was pouting in the back seat, complaining about not being able to drive.

"Your brother tried to drive! Can you believe it?! He was being such a doofus. He just thought he could learn how to drive by just trying it out without any kind of studying. He's absurd!", Anna rambled on to Sammy, as she drove.

"I'm right here!", Leo mumbled. "I can hear everything your saying, so I would suggest to stop calling me an absurd doofus!"

"I would have let him drive.", Sammy said. "He'll be driving in two years anyways. He could get some early practice."

"You're just as insane as your brother.", Anna grumbled. "What if we got caught by the police? or worse, get sent to jail? I mean, the bad things that could have happened are endless." The boys started laughing.

"Can you hear yourself?", Leo asked. "You're the goofus around here. We're getting chased by monsters, an evil sorcerer hates us and wants to rip us to shreds, and your sister just got captured, and you're worrying about getting caught by a mortal police?"

Anna blushed, "I guess I am being a little dramatic."

"Yeah.", Sammy and Leo said in unison.

They drove until about 1:00pm and then Anna finally said, "Let's stop somewhere to eat. I'm starved." She drove them off the highway and into Billings, Montana. She drove through the city and into the parking lot of Olive Garden.

"Awesome!", Leo exclaimed. "I've heard that they have unlimited pasta!" Anna rolled her eyes as she stepped out of the car. They entered the restaurant and were seated at a table. A man came to their table.

"Hi, my name is Jared, and I'll be your waiter for tonight.", Jared said cheerily as he passed out menus. "Do you want any drinks to start off with your meal?"

"We'll just have some water.", Anna replied. "Thanks!" Jared nodded and walked away with a glint in his eye.

Jared came back in a couple of minutes and gave them their water, ordered their food, and took their menus. Sammy and Anna talked a little as they waited for their food, while Leo doodled on the Childrens' Menu.

Jared came back with their food. "I hope you enjoy it's taste!" He smiled happily and then walked away to order a family's food.

"Wow! Look at all this food! I thought I would be hungry after I ate, because usually restaurants give you hardly any food, but I get bread sticks, a big bowl of soup, and pasta all to myself!", Leo said as he stuffed his face.

"It's delicious too!", Anna said as she dug in.

Sammy ate half of his soup, then said, "Wow, I'm already stuffed. This soup is so creamy and filling. I can't eat another bite!"

"I'll eat the rest of your food!", Leo said happily. He had already scarfed down all his food.

After they ate, Jared came and checked on them to see if they liked the food, and asked if they wanted any of the desserts.

"I'll have some!", Leo said.

"Leo can have some, but Sammy and I are stuffed.", Anna said. Leo ordered chocolate fudge cake with chocolate ice cream, and whip cream on top and still managed to eat it all. Jared came back to collect the dishes and cups. He then gave them the bill and then collected their money.

"Thank you so much. The food was wonderful.", Anna said politely as she gave him a tip.

"Oh, you're welcome. The pleasure was all mine. Come back soon. Real soon.", Jared said. He watched them walk out of the restaurant and into the parking lot.

They walked to the car. Anna handed the keys to Sammy and he unlocked it with the push of a button on the keys.

"Ahh!", Leo cried suddenly with surprise. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and then he fell to the ground.

"Leo?", Anna questioned unsurely. She knelt down next to him and shook his shoulders. "What's going on? Leo, wake up!" Then, she too, crumbled to the ground.

"Oh, great! This isn't good.", Sammy mumbled. He knelt down next to his friends' sprawled out bodies, and felt for heart beats. They were still alive. "It must have been the food!", Sammy thought. "There must have been some kind of chemical or something that knocked them out." Then the last thing Sammy saw was Jared standing over him with a huge grin on his face, then everything went black.


End file.
